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Dessert

Coffee Cream, Much Admired

A gelatinous dessert made from calf's foot, coffee, isinglass, heavy cream, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 Cream, Much Admired

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Boil the calf's foot in water until it reduces to 1 pint of jelly, clear of sediment and fat.

  2. Make a cup of very strong coffee and clarify it with isinglass until bright.

Combine and set

  1. Combine the jelly with the coffee and add 1 pint of heavy cream and sugar to taste.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil and pour it into a dish.

  3. It should set as a jelly but not be too stiff.

  4. Ensure your coffee is fresh.

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. Cream + sugartop 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

Calf's foot
Its gelatin gives the jelly the body that lets it set on cooling.
Isinglass
A fish-derived gelatin that clarifies the coffee and helps the mixture set firm.
Strong coffee
Provides the main coffee flavour and aroma of the dish.
Heavy cream
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, creamy mouthfeel.
Fine sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the coffee and cream.

The step that matters

Getting the right firmness. Gelatin forms a network as it cools, so the amount of jelly and isinglass sets how firm the result is. Too little gives a runny dish, while too much makes it stiff and rubbery. Check the set after cooling before serving.

“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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