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Very Fine Cocoa-nut Macaroons

A sweet treat made from grated cocoa-nut, 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 Cocoa-nut 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 cocoa-nut on a dish or tin and let it dry for a couple of days.

Make and shape the macaroons

  1. Mix the dried cocoa-nut with double its weight of sugar and the beaten egg whites.

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

Bake and store

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

  2. Remove from the tin 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. Cocoa + sugartop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together956 recipes

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

  3. Cocoa + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together582 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Cocoa-nut
Provides the bulk and chewy, coconut-flavoured body of the macaroons.
Fine sifted sugar
Sweetens the mixture and helps the macaroons brown lightly in the oven.
Egg whites
Bind the grated cocoa-nut and sugar together and set as the macaroons bake.

The step that matters

Drying the grated cocoa-nut. Fresh cocoa-nut holds more moisture, so the mixture can spread or bake up soft. Drying it for a couple of days reduces that moisture, helping the balls hold their shape and bake firm.

Swap the cocoa

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

  1. Pecansfits better
  2. Almondfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Cocoathe 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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