Why it works: Egg and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Coffee
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the coffee
Mix equal parts of Mocha and Java coffee.
Add 1 heaping tablespoon of coffee for each person plus 1 extra for the pot.
Mix 1 egg with the coffee grounds.
Pour boiling water over the coffee grounds, enough to cover them.
Brew
Let the coffee froth, then stir down the grounds and let it boil for 5 minutes.
Remove from heat and let it stand for 5 to 10 minutes to keep hot, but not boiling.
Add the remaining boiling water.
Make the cream substitute
To substitute for cream, beat the egg white with a small lump of butter, then gradually pour in the coffee while stirring to prevent curdling.
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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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Coffee + buttertop 23% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,442 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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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
- Egg
- Helps settle the grounds and clarify the coffee as it sets during brewing.
- Butter
- Adds richness and body to the egg white mixture used as a cream substitute.
The step that matters
Gradually pour in the coffee while stirring. Adding hot coffee to the beaten egg white too quickly can scramble the egg and cause curdling. Pouring slowly while stirring keeps the egg mixture 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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