Skip to main content
Dessert

Cream, Coffee

A dessert made by boiling calf's foot to produce a gelatinous jelly, then adding strong coffee and heavy cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Cream, Coffee

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the jelly

  1. Boil the calf's foot in 1 quart of water until reduced to 1 pint of jelly, clear of sediment and fat.

  2. Brew 1 cup of very strong coffee and clarify it with 1 teaspoon of isinglass until bright.

Make and set

  1. Pour the coffee over the jelly and add 1 pint of heavy cream.

  2. Sweeten to taste and bring to a boil.

  3. Pour the mixture into a mold.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

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

  3. Coffee + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Calf's foot
Provides gelatin, which sets the liquid into a firm jelly.
Isinglass
Adds more setting power and helps clarify the coffee to a bright finish.
Strong coffee
Supplies the main flavour and dark colour of the jelly.
Heavy cream
Adds richness and fat, softening the flavour and texture of the jelly.

The step that matters

Clarifying the coffee with isinglass. Isinglass is a fish-derived gelatin that binds particles and sediment so they can be removed, leaving a clear jelly. Stirring too much or skipping the settling time leaves the coffee cloudy.

“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 Ice CreamCoffee Ice Cream91 recipesCoffee CustardCoffee Custard27 recipesCoffee CakeCoffee Cake21 recipesCoffee Bavarian CreamCoffee Bavarian Cream14 recipes