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Dessert

Coffee Filling

A coffee-based custard filling made with coffee, cream, sugar, corn starch, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 Filling

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Make a cup of strong black coffee using Mocha and Java.

  2. Add 1 tablespoon of cream and ½ cup of sugar to the coffee.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring continuously.

  4. Blend 2 heaping teaspoons of corn starch with a little cold coffee.

  5. After boiling for 3 minutes, gradually pour the corn starch mixture into the coffee while stirring.

  6. In a separate bowl, beat 2 eggs.

  7. Incorporate the beaten eggs into the coffee mixture.

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 + corntop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together247 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Coffee + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,339 recipes

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

  4. Coffee + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,344 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Corn starch
Thickens the coffee mixture into a smooth, spreadable filling when heated.
Eggs
Add richness and help set the filling as it cooks.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and balances the bitterness of the coffee.
Cream
Adds fat for a smoother, rounder texture.

The step that matters

Pouring in the corn starch mixture. Starch thickens only when heated, and adding it gradually while stirring prevents lumps from forming. Pour slowly and keep stirring so the starch disperses evenly before the mixture thickens.

“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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