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
Mix ground coffee with an egg and enough cold water to moisten it.
Place the mixture in a coffee boiler and add half the boiling water needed.
Use one pint less water than the number of tablespoons of coffee.
Tightly roll a cloth.
Stop up the spout to keep in the coffee flavor.
Brew
Boil for five minutes, stirring down from the top and sides.
Reduce heat and let it simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.
Serve
When ready to serve, add the remaining boiling 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.
-
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
- Ground coffee
- Provides the main flavor and body of the brew.
- Egg
- Helps bind the grounds and clarify the brew as they settle.
The step that matters
Stirring down the grounds after boiling. Stirring the grounds down from the top and sides wets them fully so they can settle. Settled grounds leave a clearer cup and extract flavor evenly during the simmer.
“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
Brown Coffee with Egg175 recipes
Coffee Milk12 recipes
Postum Coffee9 recipes
Breakfast Coffee9 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.