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Dessert

Cocoanut Cream Candy

A sweet treat made from sugar, milk, butter, coconut, and vanilla, cooked into a creamy mixture and cut into squares.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Cocoanut Cream Candy

Why it works: Coconut and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,294 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Cocoanut Cream Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the candy

  1. In a saucepan, combine sugar, milk, and butter.

  2. Boil for 12 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in shredded coconut and vanilla.

  4. Beat the mixture until creamy.

Set and cut

  1. Pour into a buttered pan and let it cool.

  2. Mark into squares when nearly 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.

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. Coconut + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Provides sweetness and, as it cooks with the milk, forms the firm body of the candy.
Milk
Adds dairy proteins and fats that give the candy a creamy, soft texture.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the candy smoother and richer in texture.
Shredded coconut
Adds chewy texture and toasty, tropical flavor to the candy.

The step that matters

Boil for 12 minutes, stirring occasionally. Sugar syrup must reach the right concentration to set firm once cooled. Underboiling leaves a soft, sticky candy, while overboiling makes it hard and grainy. Stirring helps prevent scorching on the pan bottom.

Swap the coconut

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

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

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