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Drink

Vienna Coffee

Vienna Coffee is a coffee beverage made with mocha and java coffee, coffee grounds, egg, cream, egg white, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Vienna Coffee

Ingredients

Directions

Make the coffee

  1. Combine equal parts of Mocha and Java coffee.

  2. Add 3 tablespoons of coffee grounds for every person plus 2 extra for strength.

  3. Mix one egg with the coffee grounds.

  4. Pour in half the amount of boiling water needed and let the coffee froth.

  5. Stir down the grounds and let it boil for 5 minutes.

  6. Allow the coffee to stand hot, but not boiling, for 5 to 10 minutes before adding the remaining water.

Prepare the cream and serve

  1. In a separate bowl, mix the beaten egg white with 1 pint of cream.

  2. Serve the cream mixture in cups with sugar, then add the hot coffee.

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

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

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

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

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
The egg mixed into the grounds helps clarify the coffee, and the beaten white stiffens the cream topping.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture that softens the bitterness of the coffee.
Coffee grounds
Provide the coffee flavor and strength, so extra grounds are added for a stronger brew.

The step that matters

Stand the coffee hot, not boiling. Letting the brewed coffee sit off the boil for 5 to 10 minutes lets the grounds settle, so the cup is clear. Boiling it again would make it bitter and over-extracted.

“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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