Name: Good Coffee
Ingredients: freshly roasted coffee, ground very fine; boiling water; cream; sugar

Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓

Good Coffee

Ingredients

freshly roasted coffee, ground very fine
boiling water
cream
sugar

Directions

Heat an earthen coffeepot by filling it with boiling water, then pour the water out.
Add the finely ground coffee to the coffeepot.
Pour boiling water over the coffee, cover tightly, and let it filter through.
Heat the cups by pouring boiling water into them.
Add the desired amount of cream and sugar to the cups.
Fill the cups with the brewed coffee from the coffeepot.

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.

Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Coffee + creamtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,339 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Coffee + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,344 recipes

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