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Coffee for One Hundred Men, One Pint Each

A large batch of coffee brewed for 100 servings, using water, ground coffee, sugar, and optional milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Coffee for One Hundred Men, One Pint Each

Ingredients

Directions

Brew

  1. Boil 12 gallons of water in a suitable vessel.

  2. Add 3 lbs of ground coffee and mix well.

  3. Leave it on the heat for a few more minutes.

  4. Remove from heat and pour in 1 gallon of cold water.

Settle and finish

  1. Let it stand for 5 to 10 minutes until the dregs subside.

  2. Pour off the liquid.

  3. Add 6 lbs of sugar.

  4. If using milk, add 12 pints of milk.

  5. If using milk, reduce the water by that amount.

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

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

  3. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

Sugar and milk 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

Ground coffee
Provides the main flavour and bitterness as its grounds steep in the hot water.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the coffee's bitterness.
Milk
Adds richness and softens the coffee's bitterness.

The step that matters

Let the grounds settle before pouring off. Adding cold water off the heat cools the brew and helps the grounds sink. Pouring off too early leaves grit in the coffee, while waiting lets the dregs settle to the bottom so the liquid pours off clear.

“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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