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
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Grind the coffee as fine as flour.
In a small pot, combine the ground coffee, sugar, and boiling water.
Brew and serve
Heat the mixture over the fire, allowing it to boil three times, cooling it between boils.
Serve when it becomes thick and frothy.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 coffee flavor, aroma, and bitterness of the drink.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps balance the coffee's bitterness.
The step that matters
Boiling three times with cooling between boils. Each boil pushes more flavor and foam from the finely ground coffee, while cooling lets the grounds settle. Boiling without cooling can scorch the coffee and make it harsh and bitter.
“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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