Why it works: Coffee and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,202 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓
Cafe Au Lait
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Brew filtered coffee.
Boil milk.
Combine and serve
Combine equal parts of coffee and milk in a cup.
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 + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,202 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Filtered coffee
- Provides the bitter, roasted base flavour and most of the drink's liquid.
- Milk
- Adds sweetness, body and creaminess that soften coffee's bitterness.
The step that matters
Boil milk. Heating milk denatures its proteins, which changes its texture and flavour. Overheating can scorch it or make it taste cooked, so bring it just to a boil.
“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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