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Cocoa-nut Biscuit

A yeast-leavened biscuit flavored with grated cocoa-nut and powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cocoa-nut Biscuit

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a rather quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

  1. Mix the flour and grated cocoa-nut in a bowl.

  2. Make a leaven with the yeast and warm milk.

  3. Let the leaven stand for 1 hour.

  4. Stir in the powdered sugar.

  5. Melt the butter.

  6. Mix the melted butter with a few spoons of cold milk if necessary.

  7. Add the melted butter to the eggs.

  8. Whisk the eggs and butter mixture well.

  9. Combine all ingredients to form a very light dough.

  10. Let the dough stand for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Bake

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 1 hour.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Cocoa + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together643 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Cocoa + orangetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together53 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

All-purpose flour
Forms the main structure of the dough once combined with the liquids and eggs.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping bind the dough as it sets in the oven.
Yeast
Produces gas as it ferments the leaven, helping the dough rise and turn light.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the crumb.
Fresh grated cocoa-nut
Adds moisture, fat and coconut flavour to the dough.

The step that matters

Let the leaven stand for 1 hour. Yeast needs time to ferment the leaven before it is added. Enough fermentation gives the dough its gas and lightness, so a rushed or skipped rest can leave the biscuit dense.

Swap the orange

The recipe marks orange as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, cocoa, milk, sugar, butter, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, cocoa, milk, sugar, butter, 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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