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To Roast Coffee

A method for roasting coffee beans and preparing a coffee beverage with cream and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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To Roast Coffee

Why it works: Coffee and milk 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 ↓

To Roast Coffee

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Roast the coffee

  1. Wash and pick the coffee, then place it in a large pan in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

  2. Stir often and monitor closely until it is toasted to a dark brown without burning.

Brew and serve

  1. In a scalded pot, stir in 3 cups of coffee (not ground too fine) into 1 quart of boiling water.

  2. Boil for 20 minutes, scraping the sides and stirring occasionally.

  3. Five minutes before serving, pour out half a teacupful and return it to the pot.

  4. Keep the pot near the fire, just below boiling, and serve directly from the pot.

  5. Serve with thick sweet cream and boiled milk.

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.

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.

  1. Coffee + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,202 recipes

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

  2. Coffee + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,339 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  3. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Coffee
Provides the main flavour; roasting turns the beans brown and develops their aroma.
Thick sweet cream
Adds richness and fat, softening the coffee's bitterness and adding sweetness.
Boiled milk
Adds creaminess and mellows the coffee's bitter edge.

The step that matters

Stir often while roasting. Coffee beans go from brown to burnt quickly. Sugars and proteins darken fast at high heat, so burnt beans taste acrid and bitter. Frequent stirring keeps the roast even.

“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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