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Dessert

Coffee Cream

A custard dessert made with eggs, milk, cream, gelatin, sugar, and coffee.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Coffee Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Make a custard with the eggs and milk.

  2. Dissolve the gelatine and sugar in the coffee.

  3. Add the custard and strain the mixture.

Finish and set

  1. Whip the cream and stir it lightly into the custard when cool.

  2. Pour into a mold and 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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Milk + coffeetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

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

  4. Sugar + coffeetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,344 recipes

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

  5. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken the custard base and add richness and structure as they cook.
Gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable body when chilled.
Milk
Forms the creamy custard base and adds softness and body.
Cream
Whipped, it adds lightness, fat and a smooth, airy texture.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the bitterness of the coffee.
Strong coffee
Provides the main coffee flavour and aroma.

The step that matters

Stir in the whipped cream only when the custard is cool. Whipped cream is a foam of fat and air that collapses and loses volume in warm liquid. Cooling the custard first keeps the cream light and the mixture smooth, and it keeps the gelatine from setting unevenly.

“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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