Skip to main content
Dessert

Cocoanut Macaroons I

A sweet treat made from condensed milk, vanilla, and shredded coconut baked into small cookies.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Vanilla and coconut 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 Macaroons I

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make and bake

  1. In a bowl, mix the condensed milk, vanilla extract, and shredded coconut thoroughly.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto buttered baking sheets.

  3. Bake for about 10 minutes until golden.

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. Vanilla + coconuttop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,294 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Condensed milk + coconuttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together239 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Vanilla + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Condensed milk + vanillatop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together647 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Condensed milk
Provides sugar and sweetness, and binds the coconut into a mass that holds its shape.
Shredded coconut
Forms the bulk of the cookie and gives chewy texture and toasty flavour when browned.
Vanilla extract
Adds aroma that rounds out the sweetness of the condensed milk.

The step that matters

Bake until golden. Condensed milk sugars brown quickly at high heat, so the macaroons can scorch on the outside while staying soft inside. Watch for even golden colour rather than relying only on the timer.

Swap the vanilla

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (condensed milk, coconut, butter):

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Bananafits about as well
  3. Mangofits about as well
  4. Pineapplefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against condensed milk, coconut, butter. 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.

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipes