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Drink

Cafe Au Lait

A chilled coffee drink made with strong coffee, ice, sugar, and topped with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Cafe Au Lait

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 ↓

Cafe Au Lait

Ingredients

Directions

Make the drink

  1. Brew strong coffee.

  2. Fill a glass with chopped ice.

  3. Pour the coffee over the ice.

Sweeten and serve

  1. Sweeten to taste with sugar.

  2. Top 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.

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.

  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).

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

What each ingredient does

Strong coffee
Provides the main bitter, roasted flavor that carries the whole drink.
Chopped ice
Chills the coffee quickly and gradually dilutes it as it melts.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and softens the bitterness of the coffee.
Whipped cream
Adds fat and richness, and a cool, creamy texture on top.

The step that matters

Pour the coffee over the ice. Coffee must be brewed strong because the melting ice dilutes it. Pouring slowly lets the coffee chill evenly without losing too much flavor.

“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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