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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

Prepare

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

  2. Make 1 cup of very strong coffee and clarify it with 1 teaspoon of isinglass until bright.

Make the jelly

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

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Pour the mixture into a dish; it should set as a jelly but not be too stiff.

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
Provides gelatin, which gives the jelly its body and ability to set.
Isinglass
Clarifies the coffee, making it bright and clear, and adds further setting power.
Heavy cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the set jelly a smooth, creamy texture.
Strong coffee
Provides the main flavour and aroma of the dish.

The step that matters

Pour the mixture into a dish; it should set as a jelly but not be too stiff.. Gelatin sets as it cools, and its strength depends on concentration and amount used. Too much gelatin makes a rubbery, stiff set, while too little fails to firm up, so the proportions and the cooling must be right.

“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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