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Dessert

Cocoa-nut Drops

A sweet treat made from grated cocoa nut, powdered sugar, and stiff egg white, baked into small drops.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Cocoa-nut Drops

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 ↓

Cocoa-nut Drops

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the mixture

  1. Grate the cocoa nut and weigh it.

  2. Add half the weight of powdered sugar to the grated cocoa nut.

  3. Fold in the beaten egg white until well combined.

Shape and bake

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto buttered parchment paper.

  2. Sift sugar over the drops.

  3. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 15 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 main bulk and flavor of the drops.
Egg white
Beaten to stiff peaks, it adds lightness and helps bind the mixture together.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the drops and dissolves easily into the mixture for a smooth texture.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg white. Stiff egg white holds air bubbles that give the drops lightness. Overmixing or deflating it while folding makes the drops dense and flat, so fold gently until just combined.

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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