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Iced Coffee in Perfection

A chilled coffee drink mixed with milk, ice, topped with whipped cream and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,655 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Iced Coffee in Perfection

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chill both the coffee and milk thoroughly.

  2. Mix the cold coffee and milk well.

  3. Add cracked ice to the mixture.

Serve

  1. When serving, top each glass with whipped cream and dust with cinnamon.

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. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Coffee + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together895 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

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

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

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

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

  5. Milk + creamtop 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

Cold coffee
Provides the main coffee flavour and liquid base of the drink.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mellows the bitterness of the coffee.
Cracked ice
Chills the drink and dilutes it slightly as it melts.
Whipped cream
Adds a rich, creamy topping that melts gradually into the drink.

The step that matters

Chill both the coffee and milk thoroughly. Mixing warm liquids and then adding ice melts the ice quickly, leaving the drink watery and weak. Cold liquids keep the drink flavourful and refreshing for longer.

Swap the cinnamon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (coffee, milk, cream):

  1. Cinnamonthe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Peppermintfits less well
  4. Celeryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against coffee, milk, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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