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Coffee Extract

A liquid extract made by steeping roasted coffee beans in water, then combining with alcohol and flavoring agents.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Coffee Extract

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. Roast the coffee beans in a cast or sheet iron roaster over direct fire until black and over-roasted.

  2. Cool the beans in open air without adding water.

  3. Grind the roasted beans.

Extract

  1. Place the ground beans in double gallon cans and cover with hot, boiling water.

  2. Seal the cans air-tight and process for two hours at 240°F (115°C).

Finish

  1. Once cooled, open the cans, strain the mixture, and bottle it.

  2. Dissolve the benzoin in the alcohol, then add the other ingredients.

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. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Beans + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together238 recipes

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

  3. Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Beans + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Roasted coffee beans
Provide the main coffee flavor and dark color once ground and steeped in water.
Double proof alcohol
Dissolves the aromatic compounds and benzoin, carrying flavor through the extract.
Benzoin
A resin that adds a warm, sweet aroma and helps fix the scent in the extract.
Orange flower water
Adds a delicate floral aroma.
Tartaric acid
Adds a sharp acidity that brightens the flavor.

The step that matters

Dissolve the benzoin in the alcohol first. Benzoin is a resin that dissolves readily in alcohol but poorly in water. Fully dissolving it in the alcohol before adding the other ingredients keeps it from clumping or settling out of the extract.

Swap the beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (coffee, almond, orange, lemon, spirit):

  1. Walnutfits better
  2. Pistachiofits better
  3. Hazelnutfits about as well
  4. Beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against coffee, almond, orange, lemon, spirit. 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.

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