Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Cafe Parfait
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
Cook one cup of strong coffee with one cup of sugar until it will spin a thread.
Pour slowly onto 3 or 4 well beaten yolks, add a dash of salt, and beat until cold.
Add 2 cups whipped cream.
Freeze and serve
Pack in an ice cream cylinder and freeze.
When ready to serve, fill tall stemmed glasses, cover with whipped and sweetened cream, and place a Maraschino cherry in the centre, or dust with powdered chocolate.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Orange | 1 medium (131g) | 62 |
| Cream | 1 tbsp (15ml) heavy | 51 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Lemon | juice of 1 lemon (48ml) | 12 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Coffee | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
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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Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,634 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
-
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Coffee + orangetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together326 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (buttery, creamy).
-
Coffee + creamtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,339 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
-
Coffee + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,344 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Strong coffee
- Provides the main coffee flavour and a slight bitterness that balances the sweetness.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the base and, dissolved into syrup, helps keep the frozen texture soft.
- Yolks
- Emulsify with the hot syrup and thicken the base into a rich, smooth custard.
- Whipped cream
- Adds air and fat, giving the frozen parfait a light, creamy texture.
The step that matters
Pouring the hot coffee syrup onto the yolks. If the hot syrup is added quickly, the yolks can scramble. Pouring slowly while beating gradually warms the yolks so they thicken smoothly into the base.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (coffee, cream, sugar, orange):
- Vanillafits better
- Strawberryfits about as well
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against coffee, cream, sugar, orange. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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