Why it works: Egg and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Cocoanut 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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Shorten the crust with coconut oil.
Beat the eggs in a bowl without separating them.
Add sugar, coconut milk, and enough water to make 2 cups.
If using shredded coconut, boil it in water and use that water.
Mix all ingredients thoroughly.
Bake and serve
Pour the mixture into the crust and bake until set, like custard.
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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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Coagulate as they heat, setting the filling into a custard structure.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps keep the custard tender and moist.
- Coconut oil
- Adds fat to the crust, tenderizing it and helping it brown.
The step that matters
Baking until just set. Egg proteins coagulate as the filling heats, turning liquid into a custard. Pulling the pie out once the center barely jiggles avoids overbaking, which makes the custard weep and turn grainy. Underbaking leaves it runny.
“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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