Name: Roasting Coffee
Ingredients: coffee beans; butter (optional)

Why it works: Coffee and beans work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 289 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Roasting Coffee

Ingredients

coffee beans
butter (optional)

Directions

Keep large, flat, green coffee beans in a dry place before use.
Roast the coffee beans in a covered roaster over strong heat until glossy and aromatic.
Add a small piece of butter to improve flavor while roasting.
Store roasted coffee in well-covered vessels to maintain freshness.
For brewing, grind coffee very fine and expose it to boiling water using a bag or strainer.

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.

Coffee + beanstop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together289 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Beans + buttertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,799 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Coffee + buttertop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,442 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).