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Dessert

Coffee Russe

A chilled dessert made with whipped cream, egg whites, coffee, gelatin, and sugar, layered with ladyfingers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and gelatin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,628 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Coffee Russe

Ingredients

Directions

Whip the cream

  1. Whip the heavy cream with powdered sugar until stiff.

  2. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the whipped cream.

Make the coffee

  1. Brew the coffee by grinding it finely and boiling it in 2 cups of water for 30 minutes, then strain through cheesecloth.

  2. Dissolve the gelatin in the hot coffee, then stir in the granulated sugar until dissolved.

  3. Let the coffee mixture cool slightly, then fold it into the whipped cream.

Set in a mold

  1. Line a mold with ladyfingers, pour in the cream mixture, and refrigerate until set.

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. Cream + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Gelatin + sugartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Cream + coffeetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,339 recipes

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

  5. 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

Heavy cream
Whipped into a stiff foam that gives the dessert its light, rich body.
Egg whites
Beaten to stiff foam, adding airy lightness to the whipped cream.
Gelatin
Sets the cream mixture so the dessert holds its shape when chilled.
Brewed coffee
Provides the main coffee flavor and liquid for the dessert.
Granulated sugar
Adds sweetness and dissolves into the warm coffee.

The step that matters

Cool the gelatin mixture slightly before folding. Gelatin must be fully dissolved, but if the coffee is still very hot it can deflate the whipped cream and egg white foam. If it cools too far, the gelatin can begin to set in lumps before it is evenly folded in.

“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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