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Dessert

Coffee Flummery

A chilled coffee dessert made with gelatin, milk, eggs, sugar, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Coffee Flummery

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Strain the cold coffee through muslin.

  2. Stir in the gelatin and let it soak for 10 minutes.

Make the custard

  1. Add the milk, sugar, salt, and beaten egg yolks.

  2. Cook until it thickens slightly.

  3. Remove from heat and add vanilla.

Set

  1. Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

  2. Pour into a mold and chill.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  3. Coffee + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,391 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Coffee + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,202 recipes

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

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

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 of the dessert.
Gelatine
Sets the liquid into a wobbly, sliceable structure as it chills.
Milk
Adds richness and softness to the custard base.
Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard while whites are folded in for a light, airy texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the dessert and balances the bitterness of the coffee.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard until it thickens slightly. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but overheating can curdle them and leave a grainy texture. Stop once the mixture coats a spoon lightly.

“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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