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Drink

Vienna Coffee

A coffee drink made with coffee grounds, egg, cream, and sugar, boiled and served with a frothy cream mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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

Brew the coffee

  1. Mix the coffee grounds with the egg.

  2. Pour in half the amount of boiling water needed.

  3. Let the coffee froth.

  4. Stir down the grounds.

  5. Boil for 5 minutes.

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

Assemble and serve

  1. Beat the egg white.

  2. Mix it with the cream.

  3. Serve the cream mixture in cups with sugar.

  4. 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

Coffee
Provides the main flavor and aroma of the drink.
Egg
Beaten egg white adds foam and lightness to the cream topping.
Cream
Adds richness and body, and its fat gives the topping a smooth texture.

The step that matters

Keeping the coffee hot but not boiling. Boiling the coffee again after the initial brew can over-extract bitter compounds from the grounds and make the cup harsh. Holding it just below boiling keeps the flavor smoother while the grounds settle.

“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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