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Drink

Fig Coffee

A beverage made by brewing a mixture of wheat bran, sorghum molasses or brown sugar syrup, eggs, and dried figs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and sorghum share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Fig Coffee

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the bran

  1. Rub the sorghum molasses or brown sugar syrup into the wheat bran.

  2. Add the well-beaten eggs and mix well.

  3. Place the mixture in a 350°F (175°C) oven.

  4. Stir frequently until browned but not burned.

Prepare the figs

  1. Grind and brown the dried figs.

Combine and brew

  1. Mix the two preparations together.

  2. Brew like coffee.

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. Wheat + sorghumtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together18 recipes

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

  2. Wheat + figtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together70 recipes

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

  3. Sorghum + figtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  4. Wheat + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

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

  5. Sorghum + eggtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Wheat bran
Forms the bulk of the base and, once browned, provides the coffee-like roasted flavor.
Eggs
Bind the bran together so the mixture holds its texture before roasting.
Dried figs
Add sweetness and a dark, roasted flavor when ground and browned.
Sorghum molasses or brown sugar syrup
Coats the bran and adds sweetness and color as it browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Stir frequently until browned but not burned. Sugars in the molasses or syrup caramelize and then scorch quickly at oven heat. Frequent stirring keeps the bran browning evenly, so the flavor turns roasted rather than bitter.

Swap the fig

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wheat, sorghum, egg):

  1. Raisinfits about as well
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Figthe original
  4. Coconutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against wheat, sorghum, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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