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
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the pot
Scald the coffee pot well and remove the press.
Add ¼ pound of fresh coffee to the pot.
Steep and boil
Pour 2 quarts of boiling water over the coffee and stir for 3–4 minutes.
Cover the pot closely and let it steep.
Pour off the clear coffee and boil it again for use.
Egg method
For another method, beat an egg with a little water and mix it with 4 ounces of ground coffee.
Pour 1 quart of water over the mixture and boil for 5 minutes.
Let it settle for a few minutes or strain through a cloth.
If using cold water, add it to the pot before removing from heat.
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).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together42,166 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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
- Fresh coffee
- Provides the main coffee flavour, extracted into the hot water during steeping.
- Egg
- Its proteins coagulate as the mixture boils, gathering the grounds so the coffee clears.
The step that matters
Pour off the clear coffee and boil it again. Once the grounds have steeped, pouring off the liquid without disturbing the sediment keeps the coffee clear. Reboiling then brings it back to serving temperature.
“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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