Why it works: Coffee and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,344 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Black Coffee
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Boil water in a kettle.
For each cup, use 2 teaspoons of coffee and 1¼ cups of boiling water.
Brew and serve
Place coffee in the space between the two strainers of a French coffee pot.
Pour boiling water slowly through the top strainer onto the coffee, about 1 teaspoon at a time.
Keep the kettle boiling while pouring.
Allow to brew for about 6 minutes.
Serve directly from the coffee pot.
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.
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Coffee + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Coffee
- Provides the flavour and aroma compounds that the hot water extracts during brewing.
The step that matters
Pour the boiling water slowly and keep it boiling. Hot water extracts flavour from ground coffee efficiently. Water that cools or is poured too fast extracts less, leaving the brew weak and flat.
“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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