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 ↓
Making Coffee
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Use a patent pot or a cloth sack for the coffee powder.
For each person, use 1 teaspoon of coffee powder and ½ pint of water.
If using ground coffee, add 1 heaping tablespoon per person.
Mix the coffee with an egg or crushed codfish skin if desired.
In a heated coffee boiler, add enough cold water to moisten the mixture.
Brew
Pour in half the boiling water needed, using 1 pint less than the number of tablespoons of coffee.
Roll a canton flannel cloth tightly and stop up the spout to retain flavor.
Boil for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, then simmer for 10-15 minutes.
Add the remaining boiling water before serving.
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 powder
- Supplies the main flavor and aroma that the hot water extracts.
- Egg
- Helps settle fine grounds and clarify the brewed coffee.
The step that matters
Boiling and simmering the brew. Boiling vigorously or for too long over-extracts the grounds, pulling out bitter compounds and producing a harsh, muddy cup. Keeping the heat controlled gives a smoother flavor.
“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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