Why it works: Coffee and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 29% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,239 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Coffee for 75 People
75 peopleIngredients
Directions
Combine and heat
Combine the ground coffee, egg whites, and shells in a coffee pot.
Stir well and add 3 quarts of cold water.
Gradually bring the mixture to a boil.
Steep and settle
Add 9 quarts of boiling water and set aside to steep and settle.
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.
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Coffee + eggtop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,239 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Ground coffee
- Provides the coffee flavor and aroma that are extracted into the water.
- Eggs
- Egg whites and shells bind fine grounds as they heat, so the brew clears when it settles.
The step that matters
Gradually bring the mixture to a boil. Egg proteins coagulate slowly as the mixture warms and trap the fine grounds. Heating too fast or stirring the mixture after it boils can break up these clumps and leave the coffee cloudy.
“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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