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Drink

Coffee

A beverage made by mixing beaten egg with coffee and boiling water, served with cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Coffee

Why it works: Coffee and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,339 recipes. Both carry 2-heptanol, which smells bitter, floral. The science ↓

Coffee

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Break the egg into a cup and beat it.

  2. Take one-third of the beaten egg and mix it thoroughly with the coffee.

Brew and serve

  1. Pour the boiling water over the coffee mixture.

  2. When it comes to a boil, move it to the back of the stove and let it cook for five minutes.

  3. Serve with cream.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Egg + coffeetop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,239 recipes

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

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

Egg
Coats the coffee grounds and helps settle them, giving a clearer cup.
Coarsely ground coffee
Provides the main flavor and body of the brew.

The step that matters

Letting it cook at a gentle simmer. Once the mixture reaches a boil, moving it to the back of the stove keeps it from boiling vigorously. Gentle heat lets the egg coagulate around the grounds and draw them down, so the coffee stays clear rather than muddy.

“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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