Why it works: Cream and coffee are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,339 recipes. Both carry 2-heptanol, which smells bitter, floral. The science ↓
Vienna Coffee
Ingredients
Directions
Beat the egg white to a stiff froth.
Mix the beaten egg white with the whipped cream.
In a cup, add the whipped cream mixture after pouring in the cream and then the coffee.
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.
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Cream + coffeetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,339 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
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Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together42,166 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Egg + coffeetop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,239 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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
- Egg white
- Whipped to a stiff froth, it adds light airy volume to the cream topping.
- Whipped cream
- Provides rich fat and a smooth, soft topping that sits on the coffee.
The step that matters
Beating the egg white to a stiff froth. Egg white proteins unfold and trap air when beaten, forming a stable foam. If it is under-beaten, it will not hold volume and will sink into the cream, and if over-beaten it becomes dry and grainy.
“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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