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Dessert

Coffee Jelly

A chilled dessert made from coffee, sugar, water, cornflour, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jelly

  1. Combine the coffee with the cold water and bring to a boil.

  2. Strain the mixture well.

  3. Blend the sugar and cornflour with the cream, then add to the strained coffee.

  4. Boil for about 8 minutes, stirring until smooth.

  5. Pour into a mold and let it set until firm.

Serve

  1. Turn out into a glass dish and decorate with whipped cream and blanched almonds.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Coffee + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,339 recipes

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

  3. Coffee + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Cornflour
Thickens the coffee liquid when boiled and helps it set firm as it cools.
Coffee
Provides the main coffee flavour and aroma of the jelly.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the bitterness of the coffee.
Cream
Adds fat for a softer, smoother, richer texture.

The step that matters

Boiling the cornflour mixture until smooth. Cornflour starch only thickens fully once the mixture reaches a boil and the starch granules swell. Stirring keeps the starch evenly dispersed, preventing lumps and scorching on the base, so the jelly sets evenly.

“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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