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Dessert

Coffee Glace

A chilled coffee-flavored custard dessert made with eggs, sugar, coffee, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Coffee Glace

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Beat the sugar and eggs together in a bowl.

  2. Add the strong coffee and mix well.

  3. Pour the mixture into a saucepan and heat on the stove, boiling until it thickens.

  4. Allow the mixture to cool.

Finish and freeze

  1. Stir in the cream.

  2. Freeze the mixture until solid.

  3. Serve in glasses topped with whipped cream.

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 + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  2. Coffee + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,391 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Vanilla + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Eggs
Thicken the custard base as they cook, giving the ice cream body and richness.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the base and helps keep the frozen ice cream softer and smoother.
Strong coffee
Provides the main coffee flavor and liquid for the custard.
Cream
Adds fat for a rich, smooth texture that resists iciness.

The step that matters

Boiling until it thickens. Egg yolks and whole eggs thicken as they heat, but overheating can scramble them into lumps. Heat gently and stir until the custard coats a spoon.

“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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