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Drink

Coffee and Egg

A beverage made by combining coffee, eggs, milk, water, sugar, and cream, then boiling and stirring.

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 and Egg

Ingredients

Directions

Make the coffee

  1. Combine the ground coffee, ¼ egg, boiling water, and fresh milk in a small coffee pot.

  2. Boil for five minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Beat the sugar and whole egg together until stiff and light.

  2. Strain the boiling coffee into the egg mixture, stirring continuously to prevent curdling.

  3. Add the hot cream and serve either hot or cold, though it is better hot.

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 + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

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

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

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

  5. Milk + creamtop 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

Whole egg
Thickens the drink and gives it a light, creamy body when beaten with sugar.
Ground coffee
Provides the main coffee flavour and aroma.
Fresh milk
Adds richness and softens the coffee's bitterness.
Sugar
Sweetens the drink and helps the beaten egg hold its structure.

The step that matters

Strain the boiling coffee into the egg mixture while stirring continuously. Pouring hot liquid onto egg too fast or without stirring can heat the egg unevenly, causing it to scramble or curdle instead of blending smoothly into a silky drink.

“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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