Name: Coffee Cream
Ingredients: 2 quarts double cream; ¾ pound powdered sugar; 1 quart milk; ¼ pound mixed Java and Mocha coffee, ground; 2 handfuls sugar; 3 eggs

Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Mix the double cream and powdered sugar in a bowl.

Make the coffee milk

Cook the milk in a saucepan and add the ground coffee.
Let it simmer for about 15 minutes.
Add the sugar and let it stand for some time.

Combine and freeze

Strain the coffee mixture into the cream mixture.
Add the eggs and freeze.

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.

Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Milk + coffeetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,202 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Cream + coffeetop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,339 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Sugar + coffeetop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,344 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together29,399 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Double cream: Provides richness and a smooth, rich texture through its high fat content.
Powdered sugar: Adds sweetness and dissolves easily into the cream.
Milk: Forms the liquid base that carries the coffee flavour.
Ground coffee: Gives the dessert its main coffee aroma and flavour.
Eggs: Add richness and help bind the mixture into a creamy texture.

“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.