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Peanut and Cereal Coffee

A coffee substitute made from ground peanuts, wheat bran, cornmeal, malt, and boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Peanut and wheat match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 151 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Peanut and Cereal Coffee

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Dissolve the malt in boiling water.

  2. In a bowl, mix the ground peanuts, wheat bran, cornmeal, and dissolved malt.

Bake

  1. Spread the mixture on a baking sheet.

  2. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until nicely browned.

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. Peanut + wheattop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together151 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  2. Wheat + malttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together64 recipes

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

  3. Peanut + malttop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Coarsely ground peanuts
Provide the main roasted, nutty flavor and body of the mixture.
Wheat bran
Adds bulk and a toasty, fibrous texture as it dries and browns.
Cornmeal
Adds structure and a slightly grainy texture as it bakes.
Malt
Adds sweetness and helps the mixture brown during baking.

The step that matters

Bake until nicely browned. Browning develops the roasted flavor that defines this coffee substitute. Underbaking leaves it raw and flat, while overbaking can make it bitter and burnt.

Swap the peanut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wheat, malt):

  1. Beansfits about as well
  2. Sesamefits about as well
  3. Peanutthe original
  4. Walnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against wheat, malt. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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