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Dessert

Coffee Cream

A custard dessert made with milk, eggs, sugar, gelatin, coffee, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Make a custard by heating the milk, eggs, and sugar together until thickened.

  2. Dissolve the gelatin in the water over low heat.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  4. Strain the gelatin mixture into the warm custard.

  5. Stir in the strong coffee.

Set and serve

  1. Set the mixture on ice.

  2. Fold in the whipped cream using a fork.

  3. Pour the mixture into a mold.

  4. Refrigerate until set.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Milk + coffeetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

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

  4. Sugar + coffeetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,344 recipes

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

  5. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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
Thicken the custard base and add richness and structure as they set with heat.
Gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable body as it cools.
Whipped cream
Adds airy lightness and a creamy texture to the set dessert.
Milk
Forms the creamy base of the custard and adds richness.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the bitterness of the coffee.

The step that matters

Strain the gelatin mixture into the warm custard. Gelatin must be fully dissolved before it is added, and the custard should be warm but not hot, so the gelatin mixes evenly without setting in lumps or curdling the eggs.

“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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