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 ↓
Burnt Coffee
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Brew coffee as strong and clear as possible.
Sweeten the coffee in a cup with white sugar until it is almost syrupy.
Flame and serve
Gently pour brandy on top using a spoon.
Ignite the brandy with a lighted paper.
Once the flame has partially consumed the brandy, blow out the flame.
Serve and drink the coffee while it is still hot.
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).
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Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,939 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Coffee + brandytop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together213 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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
- Strong brewed coffee
- Provides the main bitter, roasted flavour and liquid base of the drink.
- White sugar
- Adds sweetness and body, thickening the coffee toward a syrupy texture.
- Brandy
- Adds alcohol and aroma, and is partly burned to caramelise the sugar and flavour.
The step that matters
Blow out the flame at the right moment. Letting the flame burn only partly lets some alcohol burn off while leaving flavour and aroma behind. Burning it fully would remove the brandy and leave mostly sugar and coffee, so timing controls the final taste.
“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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