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Dessert

Cocoa-nut Island

A custard made with sugar, water, corn starch, egg yolks, lemon juice, butter, grated cocoa-nut, topped with meringue and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Corn and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,927 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Cocoa-nut Island

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the custard

  1. Line the bottom and sides of a dish with cake.

  2. In a custard kettle, dissolve sugar in water.

  3. Mix corn starch with a little water and add to the kettle along with the egg yolks.

  4. Cook until thickened.

  5. Add lemon juice and butter; cook for a few more minutes.

  6. Pour the mixture into the lined dish.

Top and bake

  1. Grate the cocoa-nut, sweeten slightly, and sprinkle over the custard.

  2. Make a meringue by beating egg whites with sugar and lemon juice until stiff.

  3. Spread the meringue over the top of the custard.

  4. Brown delicately in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

  5. Serve hot or cold.

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. Corn + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,927 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Butter + cocoatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together548 recipes

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

  4. Corn + cocoatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they set with heat, giving it a rich, smooth body.
Corn starch
Thickens the custard by swelling in hot liquid, giving it a firm, sliceable texture.
Egg whites
Whip into a foam that forms the light, stable meringue topping.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel to the custard.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the custard and helps stabilise the whipped meringue.
Grated cocoa-nut
Adds flavour and a textured, toasty surface when browned on top.

The step that matters

Brown delicately in the oven. Meringue can go from golden to scorched quickly. Watch it closely, because sugar browns fast at high heat and the custard beneath can overcook.

Swap the cocoa

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

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

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