Name: Modern Cookery
Ingredients: coffee beans; water; hot milk or cream

Why it works: Coffee and milk 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 ↓

Modern Cookery

Ingredients

coffee beans
water
hot milk or cream

Directions

Grind coffee beans to a moderately fine powder.
Boil water and pour it over the ground coffee.
Allow the coffee to steep for a few minutes.
Filter the coffee to remove the grounds.
Serve hot with hot milk or cream.

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.

Coffee + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,202 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Coffee + beanstop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together289 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Beans + milktop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,266 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).