Why it works: Milk and coffee are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,202 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓
Coffee Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Boil the milk or cream in a saucepan for 15 minutes.
Add the essence of coffee when the milk boils, stirring constantly.
Remove the saucepan from the heat.
Beat the egg yolks and white, then pour gradually into the saucepan, stirring continuously.
Return the saucepan to the heat until the cream begins to thicken.
Bake and serve
Pour into a dish or custard cups and place them in a stewpan half full of boiling water.
Let the water boil until the cream reaches the right consistency.
Allow to cool before serving.
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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Milk + coffeetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,202 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Coffee + eggtop 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
- Milk or cream
- Forms the liquid base that sets into a soft, creamy custard.
- Essence of coffee
- Provides the coffee flavour throughout the custard.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard as they set with gentle heat, giving it richness.
- Egg white
- Adds protein that helps the custard set and hold its structure.
The step that matters
Stirring the eggs into the hot milk. If the egg mixture is added too quickly or the milk is too hot, the eggs can scramble and turn grainy. Adding it gradually while stirring constantly tempers the eggs so they thicken smoothly.
“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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