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To Hake Coffee

A method for brewing coffee using freshly ground beans and boiling water, optionally with milk or sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Coffee and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,202 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

To Hake Coffee

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Measure 1 ounce of coffee beans and grind them just before use.

  2. Boil 1 pint of water in a kettle.

Brew

  1. Pour a small amount of boiling water over the coffee grounds to wet them.

  2. Slowly add the remaining boiling water while keeping it boiling.

  3. Let the coffee brew completely before serving.

Serve

  1. For French breakfast coffee, use less water and fill cups with boiling milk before adding the coffee.

  2. Sweeten with sugar if desired.

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. Coffee + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  2. Coffee + beanstop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together289 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Beans + milktop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,266 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  4. Coffee + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,344 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Coffee beans
Provide the main flavor, and grinding them fresh keeps the aroma strong.
Water
Extracts the soluble flavor compounds from the ground coffee during brewing.
Milk or cream
Adds richness and softens the bitterness of the coffee in the French breakfast version.

The step that matters

Wetting the grounds before adding the rest of the water. Pouring a small amount of boiling water first lets the grounds absorb water evenly, so extraction is more uniform and the brew tastes less uneven.

Swap the beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (coffee, milk, sugar):

  1. Cocoafits better
  2. Hazelnutfits better
  3. Peanutfits better
  4. Beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against coffee, milk, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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