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Coffee Bavarian Creah

A chilled coffee custard thickened with gelatin and topped with 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 Bavarian Creah

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Pour boiling water over the ground coffee and strain.

  2. Add the beaten egg yolks and sugar to the coffee mixture.

  3. Stir the custard over low heat until it thickens.

  4. Dissolve the gelatine in cold water and add it to the hot custard.

Chill and set

  1. Let the mixture cool completely, then beat it for a few minutes.

  2. Fold in the whipped cream and set in the refrigerator to harden.

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

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

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

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

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they cook and add richness.
Gelatine
Sets the cream so it holds its shape when chilled.
Whipped cream
Adds lightness and a creamy, airy texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the bitterness of the coffee.
Ground coffee
Provides the main coffee flavour.

The step that matters

Stir the custard over low heat until it thickens. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if overheated, so gentle, steady heat thickens the custard smoothly instead of turning it grainy.

“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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