Skip to main content
Dessert

Cocoanut Cream Paste

A sweet coconut paste made by cooking sugar, sweet cream, cream of tartar, and grated cocoa‑nuts until soft ball stage.

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

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Cocoanut Cream Paste

Ingredients

Directions

Make the paste

  1. In a large pot, combine sugar, sweet cream, and cream of tartar.

  2. Bring to a boil, then add the grated cocoa-nuts.

  3. Cook the mixture to a soft ball stage, stirring continually.

Shape and set

  1. Once done, pour the mixture onto a slab and cream it as before.

  2. Mould the mixture into oblong pans and set aside for several hours.

  3. Add vanilla flavor if desired.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Cocoa + nutstop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together65 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Cream + nutstop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together886 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  4. Cream + cocoatop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together304 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Sugar + nutstop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,228 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Provides sweetness and, when cooked, the firm structure that lets the paste set.
Sweet cream
Adds fat and moisture, giving the paste a smooth, rich texture.
Cream of tartar
Acidity helps prevent crystallisation, keeping the paste smooth rather than grainy.
Fresh-grated cocoa-nuts
Contribute coconut flavour, fat and body to the paste.

The step that matters

Cook to a soft ball stage while stirring continually. Sugar syrup must reach the right concentration to set firm but stay tender. Undercooking leaves the paste soft and sticky, while overcooking makes it hard and brittle. Constant stirring prevents scorching and uneven sugar crystals.

Swap the cocoa

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream, nuts):

  1. Pistachiofits better
  2. Almondfits better
  3. Brazil nutfits better
  4. Cocoathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, nuts. 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

Coconut PuddingCoconut Pudding26 recipesCoconut CakeCoconut Cake17 recipesCocoa Nut CandyCocoa Nut Candy11 recipesCocoa Nut PuddingCocoa Nut Pudding9 recipes