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 ↓
Making Coffee
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Use a patent pot or a cloth sack for the coffee powder.
Add 1 teaspoon of coffee powder for each person to the pot.
Brew
Pour in ½ pint of boiling water for each person.
If using, mix in an egg or crushed codfish skin.
Boil for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Reduce heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes.
Add the remaining boiling water before serving.
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
- Coffee powder
- Provides the main coffee flavour and aroma that the water draws out.
- Water
- Extracts flavour from the grounds and forms the body of the drink.
The step that matters
Reduce heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Once the coffee is boiling, prolonged hard boiling pulls out more bitter compounds, so a gentler simmer keeps the flavour smoother and less harsh.
“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.
More coffee recipes
You might also like
Vegetable Soup350 recipes
Raspberry Vinegar214 recipes
Blackberry Cordial129 recipes
Lemonade126 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.