Why it works: Sugar and egg 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 Icing
Ingredients
Directions
Boil sugar in a little water until thick.
Pour the hot mixture over the well-beaten egg whites.
Beat rapidly until cool.
Add the grated coconut and mix well.
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.
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + coconuttop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,742 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Egg + coconuttop 28% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,090 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
- Sugar
- Dissolves and cooks into a syrup that sets the icing and sweetens it.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to foam, they trap air and give the icing its light, airy structure.
- Grated coconut
- Adds moisture, chew and coconut flavour to the finished icing.
The step that matters
Pouring the hot syrup over the egg whites. The syrup must be hot and poured in a thin stream while the whites are beaten. Hot syrup cooks the egg proteins slightly and stabilises the foam; if it is poured too fast or the whites are not well beaten, the icing can turn lumpy or stay runny.
Swap the coconut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Lemonfits better
- Coconutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. 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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