Why it works: Egg and coffee are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 29% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,239 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Coffee and Egg
Ingredients
Directions
In a coffee cup, add the yolk of 1 egg. Beat the egg yolk slightly.
Gradually add hot coffee while continuously beating.
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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Egg + coffeetop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,239 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
- Egg yolk
- Adds richness and body, thickening the coffee into a creamy, smooth drink.
The step that matters
Gradually add hot coffee while beating. Adding hot coffee slowly while beating keeps the yolk moving so it warms gradually and blends smoothly. Pouring it in all at once can heat the yolk too fast, which may cause it to scramble into small lumps instead of blending into a smooth drink.
“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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