Why it works: Coffee and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,344 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Coffee Syrup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the coffee
Cover the coffee with boiling water and maintain a temperature of 200°F to 208°F for 30 minutes without boiling.
Drain the liquid and add one beaten egg (shell included) mixed with ½ pint of cold water for each gallon of coffee.
Let the coffee cool to 100°F, then drain off the clear liquid.
Make the syrup
Add 12 pounds of sugar to each gallon of coffee and cook until it reaches 30 degrees (approximately 234°F).
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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Coffee + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,344 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Coffee
- Provides the main flavor of the syrup.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the syrup and thickens it as it cooks to a higher temperature.
- Egg (in the method)
- Its white and shell bind fine coffee particles, helping clarify the liquid when it is drained.
The step that matters
Cooling before draining. Draining the coffee while it is still hot can pull fine grounds and cloudiness into the liquid. Letting it cool to 100°F allows particles to settle so the clear liquid can be separated.
“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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