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Dessert

Coffee Cream

A chilled gelatin dessert made with coffee, sugar, cream, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Coffee Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Soak the gelatine in ½ cup of cold milk for 1 hour.

  2. Add boiling coffee and sugar to the soaked gelatine, stirring until dissolved.

  3. If not fully melted, place over boiling water and stir until dissolved.

Set and serve

  1. Remove from heat and let cool, then stir in the cream.

  2. Rinse a mold with cold water and strain the mixture into it.

  3. Set the mold in the ice to harden.

  4. Turn out onto a cut paper and serve immediately.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

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

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

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

  4. Coffee + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,344 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. 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

Gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm, wobbly structure as it cools.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, soft texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the bitterness of the coffee.
Strong coffee
Provides the main coffee flavour and aroma.
Cold milk
Hydrates the gelatine so it dissolves evenly later.

The step that matters

Fully dissolving the gelatine. Gelatine must be completely dissolved before the mixture sets. Undissolved granules leave gritty or rubbery patches and uneven setting, so gentle heating over boiling water helps it melt fully.

“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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