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Dessert

Caramel Parfait

A caramel custard dessert made with milk, sugar, cream, egg yolks, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Caramel Parfait

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. Place the sugar in a large saucepan over medium heat and stir constantly.

  2. When the sugar turns golden brown, remove it from the heat.

  3. Immediately add the milk and stir over hot water until the caramel dissolves into a thick syrup.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg yolks well.

  2. Gradually add the beaten yolks to the mixture, stirring constantly until it thickens and coats the spoon.

  3. Remove the mixture from heat.

  4. Beat until very light and cool.

  5. Add vanilla flavoring.

  6. Gently stir in the cream, beating until stiff.

Freeze and rest

  1. Pack the mixture in ice and salt.

  2. Let it stand for 3 to 4 hours before serving.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they set with gentle heat and add richness.
Cream
Adds fat and whipped volume, giving the parfait a soft, smooth texture.
Sugar
Caramelized to give a deep, toasty flavor and sweetness.
Sweet milk
Dissolves the caramel into a syrup and adds moisture to the base.

The step that matters

Gradually add the beaten yolks. Adding hot mixture to raw yolks too fast can scramble them. Stirring constantly while adding them slowly lets the yolks warm gently and thicken the custard smoothly.

“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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