o o k i n g o k n with coffee

Water is not the only vehicle for conveying coffee’s character once it has left the bean. Coffee can also be made in alcohol or oil. Although coffee made that way is not good for drinking, it has really interesting culinary applications. Coffee extracted into alcohol, for example, makes a useful ingredient for crafting cocktails. It can also be a good way to add a small amount of coffee aroma to a sauce without adding bitterness. Most of the bitter compounds are not extracted if pure ethanol (such as Everclear) is used. The resulting concentrate is analogous to vanilla extract. Coffee made with a mixture of water and alcohol can produce a bit (if not the best) of both worlds: the pure, smooth character that alcohol attracts plus the extra taste compounds that water draws from the coffee. Vodka, a pure neutral spirit diluted with water, is a great candidate for that approach.

If one uses a pure fat, such as a neutral cooking oil or clarified butter, to make coffee, only the fatsoluble aroma compounds in the beans will be captured. That does include most of the aromas, but it carries none of the compounds that contribute to taste. In certain cases, that may be the desired effect.

There too a greater balance can be achieved by adding some water to the mix. Melted unclarified butter or heavy cream both contain plenty of water. Cream infused with freshly crushed coffee beans produces an intensely flavoured ice cream. Because espresso is extracted at higher pressure than coffee brewed other ways, the compounds drawn off the beans are more volatile and dissipate quickly, which is why espresso should be consumed immediately. By the time espresso is integrated into a dish and the cooking or preparation of the latter is complete, the peak flavour of the coffee has been lost. E