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 ↓
French Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Combine coffee, confectioners' sugar, cold water, and cream of tartar in a saucepan.
Boil the mixture until it reaches the soft ball stage when tested in cold 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.
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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 + 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).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Coffee
- Provides the main flavor of the cream.
- Confectioners' sugar
- Adds sweetness and body to the syrup.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidity helps keep the sugar syrup smooth by discouraging crystallization.
The step that matters
Boiling to the soft ball stage. Sugar concentration sets the final texture as the mixture cools. Boiling too briefly leaves it runny, while boiling too long makes it hard and grainy, so the cold-water test is used to judge when it is ready.
“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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