Why it works: Egg and coffee are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 29% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,239 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Boiled Coffee
Ingredients
Directions
In a bowl, mix the ground coffee with the egg white and ¼ cup cold water.
Pour the mixture into a scalded pot and add boiling water.
Boil for three minutes.
Remove from heat, add 2 tablespoons cold water, and let it settle for ten minutes.
Pour the coffee from the grounds and serve.
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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Egg + coffeetop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,239 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
- Ground coffee
- Provides the coffee flavor that steeps into the water.
- Egg white
- Binds fine grounds so they clump and settle, leaving the brew clearer.
The step that matters
Remove from heat, add cold water, and let it settle. Boiling stirs the grounds up and the cold water helps them sink. Letting it settle for the full ten minutes lets the egg white carry the grounds to the bottom, so pouring off the coffee gives a clear cup instead of muddy grounds.
“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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