Skip to main content
Dessert

Cocoa-nut Pie

A coconut pie made with grated coconut, sugar, butter, egg whites, wine, rose water, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and white wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,083 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Cocoa-nut Pie

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.

Make the filling

  1. Cream the butter and powdered sugar until well mixed.

  2. Beat in the white wine and rose-water until light.

  3. Gently fold in the grated cocoa-nut.

  4. Whip the egg whites until stiff and fold them in with a few skilled strokes.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake immediately in open shells at 350°F (175°C).

  2. Serve cold, dusted with powdered sugar.

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. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Rose + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Cocoa + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together548 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-undecalactone (coconut, creamy).

  4. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped to stiffness, they lighten the filling and help it set with an airy texture.
Butter
Creamed with the sugar, it adds richness and a tender, smooth body to the filling.
Powdered white sugar
Creamed with the butter, it sweetens the filling and gives it a fine, even texture.
Grated cocoa-nut
Folded in gently, it adds moisture, chew and coconut flavour to the filling.

The step that matters

Fold in the whipped egg whites. Stiff egg whites trap air that makes the filling light. Overmixing deflates them, so the strokes should be few and gentle to keep the pie airy when it bakes.

Swap the cocoa

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, white wine, rose, nutmeg):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Pistachiofits better
  3. Walnutfits better
  4. Cocoathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, white wine, rose, nutmeg. 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.

More coconut pie recipes

Filling 5 See all 212 →

You might also like

Coconut PuddingCoconut Pudding26 recipesCoconut CakeCoconut Cake17 recipesCocoa Nut CandyCocoa Nut Candy11 recipesCocoa Nut PuddingCocoa Nut Pudding9 recipes