Why it works: Coffee and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 29% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,239 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Coffee
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Grind the coffee.
Scald the coffee boiler.
Combine coffee and beaten egg in the boiler.
Shake well through the grounds.
Add cold water.
Place the mixture on the fire.
Brew
When near boiling, pour in boiling water.
Stir the mixture.
Let it boil gently for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add cold water.
Set aside for 5 minutes.
Serve
Scald the urn or coffee pot.
Pour in the coffee.
Serve immediately.
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.
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Coffee + eggtop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,239 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Unground coffee
- Provides the flavor and aroma that the brewed drink is built on.
- Egg
- Its proteins bind to the grounds and help clarify the liquid as it heats.
The step that matters
Let it boil gently for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Boiling too hard or too long can over-extract bitter compounds from the grounds, while the egg must set in the liquid to clear it. Gentle heat and occasional stirring keep the grounds from scorching and sinking unevenly.
“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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