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Drink

Excellent Breakfast Coffee

A coffee brewed with boiling water and served with boiling milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Excellent Breakfast Coffee

Why it works: Coffee and milk 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 ↓

Excellent Breakfast Coffee

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filter

  1. Place 3 ounces of coffee in a filter that holds 2½ pints.

  2. Shake the coffee level and press it down firmly.

  3. Remove the presser and add the top strainer.

Brew and serve

  1. Pour boiling water evenly over the coffee to wet it.

  2. Allow the water to drain completely before adding more.

  3. Continue adding boiling water until all is used and drained.

  4. Remove the top of the filter and cover the coffee compartment.

  5. Serve immediately with breakfast cups filled two-thirds with boiling milk.

  6. Add coffee infusion to taste.

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.

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.

  1. Coffee + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,202 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Coffee
Provides the main flavour, which hot water draws out of the grounds as it passes through.
Water
Acts as the solvent that extracts flavour from the coffee grounds as it drains.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softens the coffee's bitterness in the cup.

The step that matters

Pour the boiling water evenly and let it drain fully. Uneven pouring lets water channel through a few spots, so some grounds are over-extracted and others barely brewed. Letting each addition drain before the next keeps contact even, giving a more balanced cup.

“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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