Why it works: Sugar and coconut are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 22% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,742 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Cocoa-nut Candy
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Break the sugar into lumps and place it in a saucepan.
Pour the spring water over the sugar and let it stand for 15 minutes.
Place the saucepan on the fire and boil for 5 to 6 minutes, removing any scum.
Continue boiling until the mixture is thick and white.
Shape and store
Stir in the grated coconut and mix continuously until it forms a mass in the pan.
Quickly spread the mixture onto sheets of paper that have been dried by the fire.
Remove the paper before the candy is completely cold.
Allow the candy to dry, then store it in tin boxes.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Sugar + coconuttop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,742 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Loaf sugar
- Forms the syrup base that hardens into the candy and provides sweetness.
- Fresh coconut
- Adds flavour and bulk, and is stirred into the syrup to form the mass.
The step that matters
Continue boiling until the mixture is thick and white. Sugar syrup must reach the right concentration to set firmly when cooled. Boiling too little leaves the candy soft and sticky, while boiling too long can make it brittle or grainy.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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