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 ↓
Cafe Frappe
Ingredients
Directions
Make the coffee
Use freshly roasted, high-flavor coffee.
Pour boiling water over the coffee and cover it to steep.
After steeping, pour off the clear coffee and strain it.
Add sugar to the coffee and cool it.
Freeze and serve
Incorporate the egg white and freeze until it reaches a wet snow consistency.
Serve in tall glasses.
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).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Coffee + eggtop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,239 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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 and aroma of the drink.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the coffee and adds body to the frozen mixture.
- Egg white
- Whips into a foam that gives the frozen drink a light, wet snow texture.
The step that matters
Freezing to a wet snow consistency. Freezing without stirring or whipping the egg white in properly can leave large ice crystals or a dense texture. The egg white foam traps tiny air bubbles and slows ice crystal growth, so the mixture should reach a light, slushy consistency rather than a solid block.
“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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