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 Custards
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the coffee
Pound the roasted and raw coffee together in a mortar without grinding.
Boil the coffee in 1 quart of rich milk.
Let the mixture cool, then strain it.
Make the custard
Stir in 2 ounces of powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons of cream.
Beat 8 eggs, omitting the whites of 4, and gradually stir them into the coffee mixture.
Pour the mixture into cups and bake in a water bath.
Finish and serve
Once cooled, grate white sugar over the tops.
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 + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,202 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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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).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Egg yolks thicken the custard as they set, giving it a firm, smooth body.
- Rich milk
- Milk fat and proteins make the custard creamy and tender while carrying the coffee flavour.
- Roasted coffee
- Provides the main coffee aroma and flavour of the custard.
- Powdered loaf sugar
- Adds sweetness and dissolves smoothly into the warm liquid.
The step that matters
Baking in a water bath. Eggs set into a custard at moderate heat. Cooking in a water bath keeps the edges from overheating, which would make the custard curdle, weep or turn grainy.
“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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