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Dessert

Cocoanut Cookies

Cookies made with egg whites, sugar, corn starch, shredded coconut, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 Cookies

Oven, in the book's wordsA very slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the mixture

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  2. Gradually add the sugar and corn starch, mixing well.

  3. Stir the mixture over a kettle until it thickens.

  4. Remove from heat and stir in the coconut and vanilla.

Bake

  1. Drop spoonfuls onto buttered parchment paper.

  2. Bake at 300°F (150°C) until set.

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

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

  2. Corn + coconuttop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together306 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

  4. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

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

Egg whites
Whipped into stiff foam that gives the cookies their airy structure.
White sugar
Sweetens the cookies and helps stabilize the whipped egg white foam.
Corn starch
Thickens the mixture when heated, giving it body that holds its shape.
Shredded coconut
Adds chewy texture and coconut flavor to the cookies.

The step that matters

Stir over the kettle until it thickens. Corn starch only thickens fully once it is heated enough to swell and gelatinize. Stopping too early leaves the mixture runny, while too much heat can scorch it or deflate the whipped egg whites.

Swap the coconut

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

  1. Coconutthe original
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Blueberryfits about as well
  4. Cherryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, corn, 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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