Why it works: Coffee and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,339 recipes. Both carry 2-heptanol, which smells bitter, floral. The science ↓
Cafe Au Lait
Ingredients
Directions
Make the coffee
Brew the coffee with the usual amount of boiling water.
Pour ½ cup of coffee into delicate china cups.
Heat the cream and serve
Heat the cream until very hot.
Serve ½ cup of hot cream alongside the coffee.
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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Coffee + creamtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,339 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Coffee
- Provides the main flavour and aroma of the drink.
- Boiling water
- Extracts flavour from the ground coffee to brew it.
- Fresh cream
- Adds fat for a rich, smooth texture and softens the coffee's bitterness.
The step that matters
Heat the cream until very hot. Cream should be hot but not allowed to boil. Boiling can scorch the milk solids and form a skin on the surface, which spoils the smooth texture.
“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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