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Dessert

Cocoanut Buns

A sweet baked bun made with flour, eggs, butter, sugar, coconut, vanilla, baking soda, and cream of tartar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 Buns

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the dough

  1. In a bowl, mix the flour and sugar.

  2. Rub in the butter lightly.

  3. Add 1.5 oz of the coconut, cream of tartar, and baking soda.

  4. Beat the eggs and mix in the essence of vanilla and about 3 tablespoons of milk.

  5. Combine all ingredients well.

Shape and bake

  1. Grease a baking tin and place the mixture in rough heaps, spaced apart.

  2. Sprinkle the remaining coconut on top.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350 °F (175 °C) for about 20 minutes.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

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

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

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

Flour
Forms the main structure of the buns as its starch sets during baking.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and add structure and richness to the buns.
Butter or lard
Rubbed into the flour to add tenderness and fat for a crumbly texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the buns brown during baking.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the dough so the baking soda reacts and helps the buns rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to release gas that lifts the buns.

The step that matters

Combining the cream of tartar and baking soda. Baking soda needs an acid to release carbon dioxide. Mixing them evenly through the dough ensures the buns rise uniformly rather than in patches.

Swap the coconut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, egg, butter, sugar, milk, vanilla, cream):

  1. Figfits about as well
  2. Coconutthe original
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Strawberryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, butter, sugar, milk, vanilla, cream. 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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