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 ↓
To Make Coffee
Ingredients
Directions
Make the coffee
Combine the ground coffee, boiling water, egg white, and crushed eggshell in a pot.
Stir well and add the cold water to help clarify.
Place the mixture in a coffee boiler and boil for 15 minutes.
Let it sit for a few minutes to settle.
Serve
Pour the coffee into a pre-warmed coffeepot and serve.
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.
-
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 the brew extracts into the water.
- Egg white
- Its proteins bind to fine grounds as they set, helping them clump so the coffee clears.
- Crushed eggshell
- Adds calcium-rich particles that help gather fine grounds, aiding clarification.
- Cold water
- Added after stirring to cool the surface, helping grounds settle and clarify the brew.
The step that matters
Boil for 15 minutes. Boiling extracts the coffee and lets the egg white and shell trap grounds as they set. Boiling too hard or too briefly can leave the coffee cloudy or bitter.
“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.
You might also like
Coffee Milk12 recipes
Postum Coffee9 recipes
Breakfast Coffee9 recipes
Steamed Coffee9 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.