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French Coffee

A method of preparing coffee using isinglass or egg white to clarify the brew.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Coffee and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,339 recipes. Both carry 2-heptanol, which smells bitter, floral. The science ↓

French Coffee

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the coffee

  1. Roast the coffee just before use until it is a fine bright brown, avoiding scorching.

  2. Grind the coffee while warm.

Brew

  1. Combine 6 cups of water in a coffee pot and set it on hot coals until boiling.

  2. Add 2 to 3 chips of isinglass or an egg white.

  3. Stir in 6 large teaspoons of ground coffee.

  4. Boil while stirring, moving the pot back from the fire to reduce boiling gradually.

  5. Once boiled, remove the pot from the coals and add 1 cup of cold water.

  6. Let the mixture settle for 30 minutes.

  7. Pour the coffee off from the grounds into a scalded pot, keeping it warm without boiling.

Serve

  1. If serving with hot cream, make the coffee stronger.

  2. Boil the cream or milk.

  3. Pour the hot cream or milk into each cup of coffee.

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 + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,339 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  2. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Egg + coffeetop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,239 recipes

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

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Isinglass or egg white
Clarifies the brew by binding fine grounds so they settle out, leaving a clear coffee.
Ground coffee
Provides the main coffee flavour and aroma that is extracted into the hot water.
Hot cream or milk
Adds richness and softens the coffee's bitterness when poured into each cup.

The step that matters

Boil while stirring, moving the pot back from the fire. Boiling too hard or too fast can boil the coffee over or scorch it. Easing the pot back from the heat lets it reach a gentle boil so the grounds settle cleanly.

“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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