Why it works: Coconut and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,294 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓
Cocoanut Cookies
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the dough
Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add grated coconut, milk, eggs, baking powder, and vanilla extract; mix well.
Gradually add flour until dough is firm enough to roll out.
Shape and bake
Roll dough on floured surface and cut into desired shapes.
Place cookies on baking sheet and bake 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden.
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.
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Coconut + vanillatop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,294 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Coconut + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,648 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
- Butter
- Creams with sugar to trap air, giving the cookies a light, tender texture and rich flavour.
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and add structure and richness to the cookies.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking so the cookies rise and lighten.
- Flour
- Builds the structure that makes the dough firm enough to roll and cut.
- Grated coconut
- Adds moisture, chewiness and coconut flavour to the cookies.
The step that matters
Gradually add flour until dough is firm enough to roll out. Adding too much flour at once or too little overall changes the dough's texture. Flour gives structure, so adding it gradually lets you stop once the dough is firm enough to roll without making the cookies dry and tough.
Swap the coconut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, milk, egg, vanilla, flour):
- Figfits about as well
- Raisinfits about as well
- Coconutthe original
- Blueberryfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, egg, vanilla, flour. 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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