Skip to main content
Dessert

Cocoa-wut Pie

A coconut pie made with coconut milk, grated coconut, butter, sugar, cracker, nutmeg, eggs, wine, baked in pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Coconut and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 411 recipes. Both carry beta-pinene, which smells pine, resin. The science ↓

Cocoa-wut Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the filling

  1. Combine the coconut milk and grated coconut in a saucepan.

  2. Simmer for 15 minutes, then remove from heat.

  3. Mix in the butter, sugar, crushed cracker, and grated nutmeg.

  4. Allow to cool, then stir in the beaten eggs and wine.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a deep pastry-lined plate.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until set.

  3. Let cool completely before serving.

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 + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together411 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).

  2. Coconut + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

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

  3. Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 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

Eggs
Set the custard-like filling as they cook, giving it structure when sliced.
Coconut milk
Provides the liquid base and rich flavour of the filling.
Grated coconut
Adds texture and coconut flavour to the filling.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the filling.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before stirring in the eggs. Hot liquid can scramble beaten eggs, leaving lumps instead of a smooth filling. Cooling first lets the eggs blend evenly, so the pie sets into a uniform custard when baked.

Swap the coconut

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

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Coconutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, nutmeg, egg, wine. 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.

More coconut pie recipes

Filling 5 See all 212 →

You might also like

White CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesSpice CakeSpice Cake344 recipes