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Dessert

Coffee Cream

A gelatin dessert made with coffee, sugar, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Gelatin and cream match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,628 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Coffee Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the gelatin in cold water until soft.

  2. Add hot coffee and sugar to the softened gelatin.

Strain and chill

  1. Strain the mixture through cheesecloth.

  2. Place the mixture in a bowl of ice water and stir frequently until syrupy.

Set

  1. Fold in the whipped cream.

  2. Pour the mixture into a mold rinsed in cold water.

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. Gelatin + creamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Gelatin + sugartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  4. Cream + coffeetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,339 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + coffeetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,344 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Gelatin
Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable structure as it cools.
Whipped cream
Adds fat and air, making the texture light and creamy.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the bitterness of the coffee.
Strong coffee
Provides the main coffee flavor and aroma.

The step that matters

Chilling until syrupy before folding in the cream. Gelatin begins to set as it cools. If the mixture is still thin, the whipped cream will deflate and the cream will not hold its air. If it is set too far, it forms lumps and does not blend evenly. Stopping at a syrupy stage lets the cream fold in smoothly.

“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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