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Coffee Mould

A chilled coffee custard made with milk, sugar, coffee essence, and gelatine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and coffee 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 ↓

Coffee Mould

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Soak the gelatine in cold water until soft.

  2. Boil the milk and pour it over the gelatine and sugar in a basin.

  3. Add enough coffee essence to flavor the milk well.

  4. Stir the mixture until it becomes creamy.

Set and serve

  1. Pour into a mould rinsed with cold water and set aside to firm up.

  2. Once firm, turn out the mould.

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

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

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

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

  3. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Sheet gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable mould that holds its shape when turned out.
Milk
Forms the creamy body and moisture of the set mould.
Castor sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the bitterness of the coffee flavor.
Coffee essence
Gives the mould its coffee flavor and aroma.

The step that matters

Dissolving the gelatine in the hot milk. Pour the boiled milk over the softened gelatine and stir until no grains remain. Gelatine only sets properly once fully dissolved; undissolved pieces leave weak spots or a grainy texture in the mould.

“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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