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Dessert

Cocoanut Biscuits

A sweet biscuit made with desiccated coconut, caster sugar, Plasmon, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 ↓

Cocoanut Biscuits

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make and shape the mixture

  1. In a bowl, whisk the sugar and egg whites to stiff froth.

  2. Gently stir in the coconut and Plasmon.

  3. Place small heaps of the mixture on a buttered baking sheet.

Bake and store

  1. Bake for about 20 minutes until lightly golden.

  2. Allow to cool and store in an airtight tin.

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

Desiccated coconut
Provides the main bulk and chewy texture of the biscuits.
Caster sugar
Sweetens the biscuits and helps stabilise the whisked egg whites.
Plasmon
Adds protein that helps bind the mixture and aids gentle browning.
Egg whites
Whisked to stiff froth, they give lift and hold the biscuits together.

The step that matters

Whisking the sugar and egg whites to stiff froth. Under-whisked whites will not hold air, so the mixture stays dense and spreads. Over-whisked whites turn dry and grainy and lose their stability, making the biscuits crumbly.

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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