Why it works: Bread and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 32% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,638 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Toast Water, or Crust Coffee
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Toast stale bread crusts until dark brown, being careful not to burn them.
Place the toasted crusts in a large pitcher.
Pour enough boiling water over the crusts to cover them.
Steep and serve
Cover the pitcher and let it steep until cool.
Strain the mixture and sweeten to taste.
Serve with a piece of ice in each glass, or enjoy warm with cream and sugar.
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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Bread + sugartop 32% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,638 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
- Stale bread crusts
- Toasting browns them, giving the drink its dark color and roasted, coffee-like flavor.
- Boiling water
- Extracts flavor and color from the toasted crusts during steeping.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to balance the roasted, slightly bitter flavor.
The step that matters
Toast the crusts until dark brown. Browning through the Maillard reaction and caramelization creates the roasted flavor that defines the drink. Pale crusts taste flat, while burnt crusts add harsh bitterness, so watch them closely.
“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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