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Dessert

Cocoa-nut Cheesecakes

A cheesecake made from grated cocoa-nut, sugar, milk, egg yolks, and orange-flower water, baked in puff pastry-lined pans.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cocoa and milk work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 643 recipes. Both carry methyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Cocoa-nut Cheesecakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a good oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Remove the rind from the cocoa-nut and grate the white part.

  2. In a clean saucepan, combine the grated cocoa-nut, sifted sugar, and milk (or water).

  3. Simmer gently, stirring until tender, about 45 minutes.

  4. Once cool, stir in the beaten egg yolks and orange-flower water.

Bake and serve

  1. Line patty pans with puff pastry and fill each with the mixture.

  2. Sprinkle a little sugar on top before baking.

  3. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until set and lightly golden.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

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.

  1. Cocoa + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together643 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  2. Cocoa + orangetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together53 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Milk + orangetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,696 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cocoa-nut
Provides the main body and coconut flavour of the filling.
Egg yolks
Bind the filling and help it set firm when baked.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps the top brown lightly.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, softening the grated cocoa-nut as it simmers.

The step that matters

Simmer until tender, then cool before adding the yolks. Simmering softens the grated cocoa-nut and thickens the mixture. Adding beaten yolks to a hot mixture can scramble them, so cooling first keeps the filling smooth and lets the yolks set evenly in the oven.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cocoa, sugar, milk, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cocoa, sugar, milk, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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