Name: Cold Coffee Souffle
Ingredients: ½ cup ground coffee; 1 pint milk; 3 egg yolks; ¾ cup sugar; ¼ teaspoon salt; ½ teaspoon gelatin; ⅓ cup cold water; 3 egg whites; whipped cream for serving

Why it works: Gelatin and cream match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,628 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Cold Coffee Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

Cook ½ cup of ground coffee in 1 pint of milk in a double boiler for 20 minutes.
Strain the mixture onto the beaten yolks of 3 eggs.
Return the mixture to the boiler and cook until thickened.
Add ¾ cup of sugar, ¼ teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon gelatin soaked in ⅓ cup cold water.
Strain again.

Set and serve

Fold in the stiffly beaten whites of 3 eggs.
Turn the mixture into a mold.
Chill.
Serve with whipped 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.

Gelatin + creamtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,628 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,778 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Coffee + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,202 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Coffee + creamtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,339 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg whites: Whipped into foam, they trap air and give the soufflé its light, airy structure.
Egg yolks: Thicken the coffee milk into a smooth custard base as they cook.
Gelatin: Sets the chilled mixture so it holds its shape when unmolded.
Milk: Forms the creamy base that carries the coffee flavour and cooks into the custard.
Sugar: Sweetens the custard and balances the bitterness of the coffee.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Stiffly beaten whites hold trapped air, which gives the soufflé its lightness. Stirring them vigorously or letting them deflate before folding knocks out that air, leaving a dense result. Fold gently so the foam stays intact.

“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.