Name: Cocoanut Drinks
Ingredients: 1 cup coconut milk; 1 cup water or sweet milk; 2 tablespoons finely ground blanched peanuts; lemon juice (enough to cover grated coconut); water (as needed)

Why it works: Coconut and peanut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 433 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Cocoanut Drinks

Ingredients

1 cup coconut milk
1 cup water or sweet milk
2 tablespoons finely ground blanched peanuts
lemon juice (enough to cover grated coconut)
water (as needed)

Directions

Prepare the base

Combine coconut milk and water or sweet milk in a bowl.
Add finely ground blanched peanuts and set aside for several hours or overnight.

Strain and serve

In the morning, strain the mixture well and drink it freely.
Alternatively, grate fresh coconut finely and pour enough lemon juice over it to cover.
Set aside for several hours, then mash it finely.
Add water as desired and strain several times.

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.

Coconut + peanuttop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together433 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Coconut + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,648 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Coconut + lemontop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,233 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Milk + peanuttop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,048 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,053 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

Coconut milk: Provides the main liquid, fat and coconut flavour of the drink.
Blanched peanuts: Add body and a nutty flavour to the liquid once finely ground.