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 ↓
Coffee
1 tablespoon for one person, or 3 tablespoons for four personsIngredients
Directions
Prepare
Add the ground coffee to a coffee pot.
Use 1 tablespoon of ground coffee for one person, or 3 tablespoons for four persons.
Add the egg to moisten the coffee and a pinch of salt.
Brew
Pour in one cup of cold water and place the pot on the hot stove.
When the mixture comes to a boil, add boiling water and reduce heat to avoid boiling.
If needed, use cold water to settle the coffee by pouring it from a height into the pot.
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.
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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
- Ground coffee
- Provides the main coffee flavor and aroma that the water extracts during brewing.
- Egg
- Moistens the grounds and helps bind fine particles so they settle clearly in the brew.
The step that matters
Reducing heat after the mixture boils. Boiling coffee vigorously can make it bitter and over-extracted, and it can disturb the grounds. Lowering the heat keeps the brew gently simmering so the flavor stays smooth.
“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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