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Coffee, to Make

A method of brewing coffee using boiling water, optional egg, and cold water to create a rich beverage.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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, to Make

Ingredients

Directions

Brew

  1. Put a sufficient quantity of ground coffee into a pot and pour boiling water over it. Stir several times.

  2. Place the pot on the fire. As soon as it boils, pour out a cupful and return it to the pot.

  3. Let it boil a second time. Pour out another cupful and return it.

  4. Set the coffee pot by the side of the fire. Gently pour a cup of cold water over the top.

Make the egg paste

  1. Beat an egg and mix it with the ground coffee until it forms a paste.

  2. Put the paste into the coffee pot and fill it with cold water.

Simmer and serve

  1. Let it simmer gently for an hour without stirring. Do not let it boil.

  2. Leave it to settle for a few minutes. Serve 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 + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,339 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Ground coffee
Provides the main coffee flavour and body of the drink.
Egg
Binds fine grounds into a paste so they settle out, clearing the liquid.
Sugar candy
Adds sweetness to balance the bitterness of the coffee.

The step that matters

Let it simmer gently without boiling. Once the egg paste is added, boiling or stirring would keep the fine grounds suspended and make the coffee cloudy and bitter. A gentle simmer lets the grounds sink so the liquid stays clear when poured.

“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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