Skip to main content
Dessert

Coffee Jelly

A gelatin dessert made with coffee, sugar, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Sugar and gelatin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,778 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Coffee Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the jelly

  1. Dissolve the gelatin in the boiling water.

  2. In a separate bowl, combine cold water and sugar, then add the coffee infusion.

  3. Mix the gelatin mixture with the coffee mixture until well combined.

Set and serve

  1. Pour into a mold and refrigerate until set.

  2. Serve with cream and additional sugar if desired.

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. Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Sugar + coffeetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,344 recipes

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

  3. Coffee + gelatintop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together146 recipes

    Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatin
Forms the gel network that sets the coffee liquid into a firm, wobbly jelly.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the bitterness of the coffee.
Coffee infusion
Provides the main flavor and liquid base of the jelly.

The step that matters

Dissolve the gelatin fully in the boiling water. Undissolved gelatin granules leave specks and weak spots in the set jelly. Gelatin needs hot liquid to hydrate and dissolve evenly before it is mixed with the cooler coffee, which keeps the gel smooth and uniform.

“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.

You might also like

Coffee Ice CreamCoffee Ice Cream91 recipesCoffee CustardCoffee Custard27 recipesCoffee CakeCoffee Cake21 recipesCoffee Bavarian CreamCoffee Bavarian Cream14 recipes