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Drink

To Toast Coffee

A beverage made by toasting coffee beans and brewing them with boiling water, thick sweet cream, and boiled milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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 Toast 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.

Toast the coffee

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

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

Brew

  1. In a scalded pot, stir in the boiling water and three cups of coffee that is not ground too fine.

  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 at boiling point, without letting it boil.

Serve

  1. Serve directly from the coffee pot with a generous supply of 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.

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, and toasting it deepens the colour and aroma before brewing.
Thick sweet cream
Adds richness and fat that softens the bitterness of the coffee.
Boiled milk
Adds creaminess and mellows the coffee's sharpness when added to the cup.

The step that matters

Toasting the coffee. Toasting to dark brown develops flavour, but burnt grains taste acrid and spoil the whole batch, so stir often and watch closely.

“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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