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Drink

Vienna Coffee

A coffee beverage made by filtering coffee, heating cream, whisking egg white with milk, and combining the mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Coffee and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,202 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Vienna Coffee

Ingredients

Directions

Make the coffee and cream

  1. Filter the coffee, using 1 tablespoon of ground coffee per person and 1 for the pot.

  2. Heat 1 quart of cream in a custard kettle or pail set into boiling water until hot.

Add the egg

  1. Beat the egg white to a froth and mix it with 3 tablespoons of cold milk.

  2. Stir the egg and milk mixture into the hot cream for 1 minute.

Brew and serve

  1. Alternatively, pour boiling water over the coffee, cover closely, and boil for 1 minute.

  2. Remove the coffee to the side of the stove for a few minutes to settle before serving.

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. Coffee + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

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

  3. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  5. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Cream and egg 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

Cream
Provides fat and richness, giving the drink a full, smooth body.
Egg white
Whipped to a froth, it adds a light, airy texture to the hot cream.
Ground coffee
Supplies the main roasted, bitter aroma and flavor of the drink.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg and milk into the hot cream. Egg proteins begin to set when heated. Adding the mixture to very hot cream while stirring steadily spreads the heat evenly and helps prevent lumps or curdling, keeping the texture smooth.

“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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