Why it works: Coffee and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 29% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,239 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Coffee
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Grind the coffee moderately fine.
Put the coffee into a pot, stir in the egg white and ¼ cup cold water.
Brew
Pour the boiling water over the coffee mixture.
Place the pot over a brisk fire and bring to a rapid boil.
Set the pot on the back of the stove.
Pour ¼ cup cold water into the pot.
Settle
Let it stand for 5 minutes to settle.
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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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
- Ground coffee
- Provides the flavour and body of the brew, extracted by the hot water.
- Egg white or crushed eggshell
- Binds fine grounds into a clumping mass so they settle out of the liquid.
- Cold water
- Cools the surface after boiling so grounds sink and the brew clears.
The step that matters
Bring to a rapid boil, then set aside off the heat. Boiling extracts the coffee and lets the egg white coagulate and trap grounds; the cold water added afterward helps them sink, so the cup stays clear.
“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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