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
Make the coffee
Combine Java and Mocha coffee in a pot.
Boil hard for 10 to 12 minutes.
Remove from heat.
Pour out a cup of coffee, then pour the coffee back into the pot.
Place the pot on the back of the stove to keep hot without boiling for 5 minutes.
Serve
Serve hot with cream and sugar.
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
- Java coffee
- Provides the main coffee flavor and body of the brew.
- Mocha coffee
- Adds a richer, more intense coffee flavor to the blend.
The step that matters
Boil hard for 10 to 12 minutes. Boiling extracts flavor from the grounds into the water. Boiling too briefly leaves the coffee weak, while boiling too long can make it bitter. Keeping the pot just off the boil afterward helps the grounds settle without over-extracting.
“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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