Why it works: Coffee and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,344 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Feb An' S Syrup of Coffee
Ingredients
Directions
Make the coffee infusion
Infuse 4 ounces of coffee in 24 ounces of pure cold water in a tightly closed vessel for 6 hours.
Place the vessel in a water bath and bring the water to a boil.
Remove the vessel and let it stand for a while.
Pour off the liquid and add 8 ounces of cold water to the remaining grounds.
Pour this off and add it to the first liquid after a few hours.
Finish the syrup
Dissolve 3 pounds of double-refined sugar in a water bath.
Strain the sugar solution through a cloth and stir it into the coffee mixture.
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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Coffee + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,344 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Coffee
- Provides the bitter, aromatic coffee flavor that defines the syrup.
- Double-refined sugar
- Provides sweetness and body, thickening the liquid into a syrup.
The step that matters
Bringing the vessel to a boil in the water bath. Heating the closed vessel in a water bath extracts flavor from the coffee without scorching it. Letting the heat run too hard risks a harsh, burnt taste, so keep the bath at a controlled heat.
“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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