Why it works: Coffee and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,391 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓
Mocha Pudding or Gateau
Ingredients
Directions
Bake a sponge cake mixture in a timbale mold and let it cool.
Cover the cooled cake with coffee icing.
Decorate with Vienna icing flavored with strong coffee.
Fill the center with whipped cream flavored with vanilla.
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.
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Coffee + vanillatop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,391 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,301 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
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Coffee + creamtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,339 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Cream and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,301 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
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