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Dessert

Coffee Cream

A chilled dessert made with cream, gelatin, egg whites, powdered sugar, and strong coffee.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and gelatin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,628 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Coffee Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the gelatin in just enough cold water to cover for 45 minutes on the back of the stove.

  2. Whip the cream, removing the froth until all the cream is used.

Make the cream

  1. Beat the egg whites well, then add the powdered sugar and beat again.

  2. Add the strong coffee to the egg mixture, then fold in the whipped cream.

  3. Set the mixture on ice.

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. Cream + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Gelatin + sugartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Cream + coffeetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,339 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + coffeetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Cream
Whipped to form the light, airy body of the dessert.
Gelatin
Sets the mixture so it holds its shape when chilled.
Egg whites
Whipped to trap air, adding lightness and volume.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the mixture and helps stabilise the beaten egg whites.
Strong coffee
Provides the main coffee flavour and aroma.

The step that matters

Soak the gelatin. Gelatin must be fully hydrated in cold water before use; if it is undissolved or lumpy, it will not set the cream evenly, leaving grainy or weak patches in the finished dessert.

“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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