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 ↓
Excellent Breakfast Coffee
Ingredients
Directions
Make the coffee
Use a filter or percolator suitable for the amount of coffee.
Add 3 ounces of coffee to the filter.
Pour in ⅓ pint of boiling water to wet the coffee evenly.
Let it drain completely before adding more water.
Continue adding boiling water until all is used and let it drain through.
Remove the top of the filter and cover the coffee compartment.
Serve
Serve immediately with breakfast cups filled two parts full of boiling milk.
Add coffee infusion to taste.
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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Coffee + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,202 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Coffee
- Provides the main flavour and aroma; its strength depends on how much water passes through it.
- Boiling water
- Extracts flavour from the coffee grounds as it drains through them.
- Boiling milk
- Adds creaminess and softens the bitterness of the brewed coffee.
The step that matters
Wet the coffee evenly, then let it drain completely. Pouring water slowly over the grounds and letting them drain before adding more keeps extraction even. Adding water too fast can leave dry patches that brew weak and uneven.
“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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