Why it works: Molasses and coffee work together. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 640 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓
Invalid Coffee
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the base
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Mix warm water and baking molasses in a bowl.
Add enough fresh bran to moisten the mixture, then mix thoroughly.
Bake and finish
Spread the mixture on a baking sheet and brown in the oven.
Once browned, stir in the ground coffee and beaten eggs.
Brew to use
To use, take 1 tablespoon of the mixture and add it to a cup of boiling water.
Boil for 15 to 20 minutes.
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.
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Molasses + coffeetop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together640 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Coffee + eggtop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,239 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Molasses + eggtop 34% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,879 recipes
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Baking molasses
- Adds sweetness and dark color as its sugars brown in the oven.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture together so it holds its shape after baking.
- Ground coffee
- Provides the main coffee flavor and aroma.
- Fresh bran
- Absorbs liquid to moisten the mixture and give it a firmer, crumbly texture.
The step that matters
Browning the mixture in the oven. Sugars in molasses darken quickly, so the mixture can scorch before it dries out. Watch for even browning and take it out once it is evenly colored.
“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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