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Dessert

Very Fine Cocoantjt Macaroons

A sweet treat made from grated coconut, sugar, and egg whites, baked into small balls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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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 ↓

Very Fine Cocoantjt Macaroons

Oven, in the book's wordsA very gentle oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very gentle oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Spread the grated coconut on a dish and let it dry for a couple of days.

  2. Add double the weight of the coconut in fine sifted sugar and the beaten egg whites.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll the mixture into small balls and place them on a buttered baking sheet.

  2. Bake in a gentle oven at 300°F (150°C) for about 20 minutes.

Finish

  1. Remove from the baking sheet while warm and store in a dry canister once cooled.

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. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  2. Coconut + sugartop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,742 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  3. Coconut + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Coconut
Provides the bulk and chewy texture of the macaroons.
Egg whites
Trap air and bind the coconut so the balls hold their shape while baking.
Sugar
Adds sweetness, helps bind the mixture, and browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Baking in a gentle oven. Sugar and egg white set and brown quickly. A hot oven can colour the outside before the centre is set and dry, so the macaroons burn or turn out hard. Keeping the oven gentle lets them set evenly.

Swap the coconut

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. 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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