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 ↓
Coffee
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the egg mixture
Beat the egg in a bowl.
In a separate bowl, combine the ground coffee with ⅓ cup of the beaten egg and just enough cold water to moisten the coffee.
Stir the mixture well and transfer it to a coffee pot.
Brew and serve
Pour 6 cups of boiling water over the coffee mixture.
Boil the coffee hard for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring frequently.
Do not leave the pot until the grounds sink to the bottom.
Rinse the coffee pot with boiling water, pour in the coffee, and serve hot.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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
- Egg
- The beaten egg binds to the coffee grounds so they settle and clarify the brew.
- Ground coffee
- Provides the main flavor and aroma once steeped in the boiling water.
The step that matters
Boil the coffee hard while stirring frequently. Vigorous boiling with stirring keeps the grounds suspended so the egg can bind them. Stopping early leaves the coffee cloudy and gritty.
“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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