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 ↓
Boiled Coffee
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Mix coffee, egg white, and mashed shell with 1 cup cold water.
Pour mixture into a well-scalded coffee pot and add 6 cups cold water.
Brew and serve
Heat gradually until boiling.
Place a cloth in the spout to retain aroma and boil for 5 minutes.
Add 2 tablespoons cold water, then move pot to the back of the range.
Serve after 2 minutes.
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
- Freshly ground coffee
- Provides the main flavor and aroma of the drink.
- Egg white
- Coagulates as it heats, trapping the grounds so the coffee clears.
The step that matters
Heat gradually until boiling. Egg white sets into a loose mass that catches the grounds as the liquid warms. Heating too fast or stirring the pot can break this mass apart, leaving the coffee cloudy and gritty.
“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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