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To Roast Coffee

A method for roasting coffee beans to a light brown, then cooling and storing them.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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To Roast Coffee

Why it works: Coffee and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,344 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

To Roast Coffee

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pick over the coffee carefully and wash it in clean, cold water.

  2. Drain and dry the coffee.

Roast

  1. Place the coffee in a coffee roaster or baking pan.

  2. Roast quickly to a light brown, stirring frequently.

  3. After roasting, turn the coffee onto a clean cloth and cover it to cool.

Finish and store

  1. Once cold, pick out any burned grains.

  2. Store the coffee in a vessel with a close-fitting top.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Coffee + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,344 recipes

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

  2. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Coffee + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,442 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Coffee
Forms the entire product, so its even roasting determines flavour and colour.
Butter
Adds a small amount of fat that can coat the beans and aid browning and aroma.
Powdered sugar
Caramelises during roasting, adding sweetness and deeper browning to the beans.

The step that matters

Roast quickly to a light brown, stirring frequently. Sugars and proteins brown fast, so uneven stirring or too much heat can scorch some beans while others stay pale, giving a bitter, uneven roast.

“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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