Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓
White Coffee Cream. Creme Blanche Au Cafe, a I'ltalienne.
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the cream and keep it hot on the side of the furnace.
Add the burnt coffee, cover, and let it infuse for 2 hours.
Beat the egg whites lightly and mix with the infused coffee.
Stir in the sugar and thicken on a very slow fire.
Pass through a fine sieve and chill 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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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Cream + coffeetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,339 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
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Coffee + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,344 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together42,166 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rich cream
- Provides fat and body, giving the finished cream a rich, smooth texture.
- Burnt coffee
- Supplies the coffee flavour that defines the dish, infused into the hot cream.
- Egg whites
- Help thicken the mixture as they set gently over low heat, giving it structure.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the cream thicken smoothly.
The step that matters
Thicken on a very slow fire. Egg proteins set at moderate heat and can scramble if heated too fast, leaving the cream grainy. Gentle heat lets the mixture thicken evenly and 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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