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Dessert

Cocoanut Pie

A custard pie made with milk, grated coconut, butter, eggs, and sugar, topped with coconut and meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Cocoanut Pie

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cocoanut Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the filling

  1. Heat the milk in a saucepan until boiling.

  2. Pour the hot milk over the grated coconut, butter, eggs, and sugar in a mixing bowl. Mix well.

  3. Pour the mixture into a pie crust.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until set.

Make the meringue and finish

  1. Set aside the white of one egg after baking.

  2. Whip the egg white until stiff and gradually add ¼ cup sugar.

  3. Spread the meringue on top of the pie.

  4. Return the pie to the oven to brown slightly.

  5. Sprinkle with grated coconut before serving.

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.

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.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Milk + coconuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,648 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Coconut + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard, giving the filling structure as it bakes.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and gives it body.
Grated coconut
Adds coconut flavour and chewy texture to the filling.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, smoother filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps the meringue become stable and glossy.

The step that matters

Returning the pie to the oven to brown the meringue. Meringue can go from golden to scorched quickly, and sugar darkens faster at high heat. Watch closely so the top browns lightly without burning.

Swap the coconut

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Coconutthe original
  4. Peachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, egg, sugar. 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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