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Drink

Cafe Au Lait

A beverage made by brewing coffee and chicory with water, then mixing with hot milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Cafe Au Lait

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 ↓

Cafe Au Lait

Ingredients

Directions

Make the coffee

  1. Combine 12 teaspoons of coffee and 2 teaspoons of chicory with each pint of water.

  2. Brew the coffee mixture in a percolator.

  3. If any coffee remains, pour it into a bottle immediately.

Assemble the drink

  1. Pour the milk in first for best results.

  2. Add one-third of the brewed coffee to a cup and fill with hot milk.

  3. Alternatively, use half coffee and half milk for a stronger flavor.

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).

  2. Coffee + chicorytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50 recipes

    Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).

  3. Chicory + milktop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together33 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Coffee
Provides the bold, bitter flavor that defines the drink.
Chicory
Adds a roasted, slightly bitter depth to the coffee flavor.
Milk
Adds richness and softens the bitterness of the coffee.

“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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