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 ↓
To Make Coffee
Ingredients
Directions
Brew
Put 2 ounces of fresh-ground coffee into a coffee pot.
Pour 8 cups of boiling water over the coffee and let it boil for 6 minutes.
Pour out a cupful 2 or 3 times and return it to the pot.
Clarify and serve
Add 2-3 isinglass chips and pour 1 large spoonful of boiling water on it.
Boil for an additional 5 minutes.
Set the pot by the fire to keep hot for 10 minutes.
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.
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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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Coffee + creamtop 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).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fresh-ground coffee
- Provides the main flavor and aroma that the boiling water extracts.
- Isinglass chips
- Fining agent that gathers fine suspended particles so the brewed coffee settles clearer.
The step that matters
Returning the poured-out coffee to the pot. Pouring the brew out and back mixes the grounds through the liquid and helps the flavor extract evenly, so the coffee is not weak on one side or bitter from over-steeping in one spot.
“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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