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
Put the coffee in a bowl.
Beat the egg slightly with a fork and add 2 tablespoons to the coffee.
Mix in ½ cup of cold water and transfer to a scalded enameled coffee pot.
Add 6 cups of boiling water and pack the spout with soft paper.
Brew
Bring to a boil and cook for 4 minutes once boiling starts.
Stir down and add the remaining ½ cup of cold water.
Pour off a cup to clean the spout of grounds, then return it to the pot.
Place the pot on an asbestos sheet over a simmer burner to keep hot without boiling.
Let it stand for 10 minutes before serving with hot cream.
If it needs to stand longer, strain it from the grounds and keep at a uniform temperature.
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 + 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
- Medium ground coffee
- Provides the main coffee flavor and body of the brew.
- Slightly beaten egg
- Helps clarify the coffee by binding fine grounds so they settle.
The step that matters
Bring to a boil and cook for 4 minutes. Boiling extracts flavor from the grounds, but overboiling or uneven heat can make the coffee harsh and bitter. Keep the pot on a gentle simmer once it is hot, and time the cooking from when boiling begins.
“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
Brown Coffee with Egg175 recipes
Egg Coffee20 recipes
Coffee Milk12 recipes
Postum 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.