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 ↓
Cafe Au Lait
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Use a French coffee bignin, ensuring all strainers are in place and the pot is clean.
Preferably use an earthenware coffee pot to avoid chemical reactions with tin.
Brew
Add the ground coffee to the bignin, using one heaping tablespoon per cup plus one for the pot.
Place the top strainer in position and pour in the freshly boiled water.
Cover and let the coffee trickle through.
Pour the coffee into a cup and back over the grounds to adjust strength.
Keep the coffee pot just short of boiling, covering the spout and top while it drips.
Serve
Serve immediately with boiled milk.
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
- Ground coffee
- Provides the main coffee flavour and strength of the drink, extracted by the hot water.
- Boiled milk
- Adds richness and softens the bitterness of the coffee.
The step that matters
Keep the pot just short of boiling. If the coffee reaches a full boil while dripping, it can scorch and turn bitter. Holding it just below boiling extracts flavour smoothly and keeps the cup tasting clean.
“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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