Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Coffee
Ingredients
Directions
Brew
Place 2 ounces of fresh-ground coffee in a coffee pot.
Pour 8 cups of boiling water over the coffee and let it boil for 6 minutes.
Pour out a cupful 2-3 times to clarify the coffee.
Clarify and serve
Add 2-3 isinglass chips and 1 large spoonful of boiling water.
Boil for an additional 5 minutes and keep hot for 10 minutes.
Serve with fine cream and sugar.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Coffee + creamtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,339 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
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Coffee + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Fresh-ground coffee
- Provides the main coffee flavour and aroma that the water extracts.
- Isinglass chips
- Gelatin-like fining agent that binds fine particles so they settle and the coffee clears.
The step that matters
Pouring out a cupful 2-3 times to clarify the coffee. Isinglass only clears coffee when the fine grounds are already suspended and removed. Pouring off the cloudy first portions, rather than skipping this, keeps the final drink from tasting muddy or 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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