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Drink

After-dinner Black Coffee

A strong black coffee served after dinner, optionally with block sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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 ↓

After-dinner Black Coffee

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Brew a strong and clear coffee using double the usual amount of coffee.

  2. Serve the coffee in small cups.

  3. Offer block sugar on the side, but do not add cream or milk.

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Strong coffee
Provides the bold, bitter flavour that defines the drink, with a clear body from careful brewing.

The step that matters

Brew a strong and clear coffee using double the usual amount of coffee.. Using double the usual coffee gives the concentrated, bold flavour this drink depends on, since water alone then has less influence on taste. Brewing clearly, without sediment, keeps the cup smooth and clean-tasting.

“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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