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Dessert

Coffee Parfait

A chilled coffee custard dessert folded with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Coffee Parfait

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. In a pan, beat the egg yolks until very light.

  2. Add the sugar syrup and black coffee, stirring over low heat until thick like custard.

  3. Remove from heat and beat until light and cold.

Freeze and serve

  1. Fold in the whipped cream.

  2. Pack the mixture in ice and salt for 2 hours.

  3. Serve in glasses with a small dollop of whipped cream on top.

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. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  3. Cream + syruptop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Coffee + syruptop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together318 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Cream + coffeetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,339 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

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 and add richness as they set gently over low heat.
Whipped cream
Adds air and fat, giving the parfait a light, creamy texture.
Sugar syrup
Sweetens the mixture and lowers its freezing point for a softer frozen texture.
Black coffee
Supplies the coffee flavour and a little liquid to the custard.

The step that matters

Stirring the custard over low heat. Egg yolks set into custard at moderate temperatures; if the heat is too high they scramble and curdle. Gentle heat and constant stirring keep the custard smooth and thick.

“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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