Cooking with Coffee: Savory Applications

Coffee—either ground or brewed—can add a deep, earthy, rounded resonance to many savory dishes. Whether part of a spicy rub for pork ribs or infused in a slow-cooked brisket, coffee contributes warmth, fullness and a faint bitter finish.

Brenda LaNoue, chef instructor at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, still remembers the robust flavor of her mother's beef stew, which got a helping hand from instant coffee. As a child, she thought the recipe was exotic, but as a culinary professional, she understands how coffee can fill out the flavor spectrum.

"Sometimes you need a little bitterness to make a perfect balance," says La Noue.

Ground coffee adds a dusky base note to rubs for barbecued meats. LaNoue mixes espresso powder and fennel seed in a rub for lamb loin, but other combinations also make perfect sense. Try coffee with cumin on pork; coffee, coriander and cardamom on duck breast; coffee and chili powder on beef ribs.

Coffee makes braised dishes taste richer and more layered. Add brewed coffee or ground coffee to a pot roast, short ribs, or boeuf bourguignon, or to a meaty beef and pork ragù for pasta. Keep it subtle; you want the coffee to merge with other flavors, not dominate them.

Used in a marinade for quail, chicken wings, or duck before grilling, coffee contributes an appetizing dark, lacquered look to the finished dish.

In a barbecue sauce, it balances the sweet and spicy notes, grounding them with low tones. In a Mexican mole, coffee's roasted flavor echoes and deepens the aromas of toasted chilies, sesame seeds and nuts.

"It's an accent or complement," says LaNoue, another "color" on the chef's palette. Flavors that harmonize with coffee in the savory kitchen include chilies, nuts, mushrooms, curry, ginger and star anise.

Although coffee beans are already roasted, warming them in a dry skillet before grinding-as you would for many dry spices-perks up their flavor. "It's important not to burn the coffee," says LaNoue. "Burned coffee goes way past being bitter and becomes acrid and offensive."

Recipe links:
Espresso & Chili Rubbed Flat Iron Steak with Warm Chipotle-Tomato Jam and Syrah Demi Jus
• Crispy Sweet Potato Fries
Caribbean Shrimp Tropical Salad With Lime Vinaigrette
Apple Jack Ribs Smoked Over Coffee Beans with Coffee Barbeque Sauce
Coffee Crackers with Aged Port Cheddar Spread
Coffee Coloradito Mole
Cuban Style Polenta Tamales
• Black Bean Mash
Chicken Wings With Thai-Inspired Coffee Barbecue Sauce
Smoked Turkey, Asiago, Apple, Sage Sandwich with Coffee Shallot Jam