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Dessert

Coffee Shape

A gelatin dessert made with milk, cream, coffee, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Coffee Shape

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Dissolve the gelatine in the milk.

  2. Add the coffee and strain through a fine sieve.

  3. Sweeten to taste.

Set and serve

  1. Whip the cream and fold it into the mixture.

  2. Place in a cool area and stir occasionally until nearly set.

  3. Pour into a mold that has been dipped in cold water.

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.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Milk + coffeetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,202 recipes

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

  3. Cream + coffeetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,339 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  4. Coffee + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,344 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Sets the liquid into a wobbly, sliceable body as it cools.
Cream
Adds richness and a soft, creamy texture when folded in.
Milk
Forms the creamy liquid base that the gelatine sets in.
Coffee
Provides the main coffee flavour and aroma.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the mixture and balances the bitterness of the coffee.

The step that matters

Stir until nearly set. Gelatine begins to set as it cools, so the mixture should be checked and stirred while it is still soft. If it sets fully before the cream is folded in or before it is poured, it will not blend evenly or fill the mold 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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