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Drink

Coffee and Milk

A beverage made by brewing strong coffee with chicory, then mixing with hot milk and optional cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Coffee and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,202 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Coffee and Milk

Ingredients

Directions

Brew

  1. Brew 6 tablespoons of strong coffee or 2 tablespoons of coffee essence with 1 pint of boiling water and ¼ teaspoon of powdered chicory.

  2. Filter the coffee and warm it to simmering, but do not boil.

  3. Pour the brewed coffee into a clean bottle and cork it tightly for storage.

Serve

  1. To serve, mix the brewed coffee with 1 cup of hot milk and add cream if desired.

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

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

  2. Coffee + chicorytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50 recipes

    Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).

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

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

  4. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Milk + chicorytop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together33 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Strong coffee
Provides the main coffee flavour and bitterness that the drink is built on.
Hot milk
Adds body and mellows the bitterness of the coffee with softness and sweetness.
Powdered chicory
Adds a roasted, slightly bitter note that deepens the coffee flavour.

The step that matters

Do not let the coffee boil. Boiling over-extracts coffee, drawing out harsh bitter compounds and giving a burnt, astringent taste. Gentle warming to simmering keeps the flavour smoother.

“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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