Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 ↓
Coffee Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Dissolve the gelatine
Soak the gelatine in ½ cup of cold water for 30 minutes.
Place the soaked gelatine over boiling water and add the hot coffee and sugar.
Stir until dissolved, then remove from heat.
Set the cream
Stir in the cold cream and strain into a mold that has been wet with cold water.
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.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Coffee + creamtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,339 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
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Coffee + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Gelatine
- Sets the liquid cream into a firm, sliceable structure as it cools.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture through its fat.
- Coffee
- Provides the main flavour and aroma of the dessert.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the bitterness of the coffee.
The step that matters
Dissolve the gelatine fully. Gelatine must dissolve completely over heat before the cream is added. Undissolved granules leave gritty specks, and unevenly dispersed gelatine sets unevenly, so the cream may not hold a clean, firm shape when unmoulded.
“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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