Why it works: Egg and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
To Clear Coffee
Ingredients
Directions
Wash the coffee pot well every day and scald it before use.
Once a week, fill the coffee pot with water and dissolve 1 tablespoon of baking soda, then boil briefly and scald with clear water.
To clear coffee, beat the egg white and stir it into the coffee just before it's done toasting.
If eggs are unavailable, wet the coffee with cold water and add a small piece of clean bacon rind or a pinch of flour and salt.
A pinch of salt can improve the flavor of the coffee.
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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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
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