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Drink

Nutritious Coffee

A milk and coffee beverage thickened with isinglass, optionally whisked with egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and coffee are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,202 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Nutritious Coffee

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dissolve the isinglass in a little water.

Make the coffee

  1. In a saucepan, combine the milk and coffee; heat until nearly boiling.

  2. Boil the mixture for 3 minutes.

  3. Clear the coffee by pouring some into a cup and dashing it back into the saucepan.

  4. Add the dissolved isinglass and let it settle on the hob for a few minutes.

Serve

  1. If using, beat the egg in a cup and pour the coffee over it before serving.

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. Milk + coffeetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  2. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Coffee + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Isinglass
Acts as a fining agent that clears the coffee by binding fine particles so they settle out.
New milk
Provides the body and creamy richness of the drink.
Freshly ground coffee
Supplies the main coffee flavour and aroma.
Egg
Adds richness and body when beaten into the cup before the coffee is poured over it.

The step that matters

Clearing the coffee with isinglass. Isinglass only clears the liquid if it is added to hot coffee and left undisturbed to settle. Stirring it in vigorously or skipping the settling time leaves cloudy particles suspended in the drink.

“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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