Why it works: Coffee and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 29% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,239 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Boiled Coffee
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Heat the coffee pot.
Brew
Mix the coffee with the cold water, egg white, and eggshell.
Add the boiling water and boil for three minutes.
Remove the pot to the back of the stove.
Pour out a small quantity of the coffee and return it to the pot.
Add the teaspoon of cold water and let it settle for two minutes.
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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Coffee + eggtop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,239 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Coffee
- Provides the main flavour and aroma of the brewed drink.
- Egg white
- Binds fine grounds so they clump and settle, clarifying the coffee.
- Eggshell
- Adds small particles that help attract and gather loose grounds as the coffee cooks.
The step that matters
Returning the poured-out coffee and adding cold water. Settling depends on the grounds clumping in the egg white and eggshell. Adding the cold water after the boil helps the grounds sink, so the coffee pours clear rather than cloudy.
“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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