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Dessert

Maple Parfait

A chilled dessert made from maple syrup, egg yolks, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and maple syrup work together. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 607 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Maple Parfait

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Combine egg yolks and maple syrup in a double boiler.

  2. Cook the mixture until it thickens to a custard consistency.

  3. Let the mixture cool.

Assemble and freeze

  1. Fold in the whipped cream.

  2. Pour the mixture into a mold.

  3. Pack the mold in ice and salt for 3 hours.

Serve

  1. Serve in parfait glasses, topped with a spoon of whipped cream and a cherry.

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. Cream + maple syruptop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together607 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Egg + maple syruptop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,156 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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 as they gently heat, forming a custard that gives the parfait its rich body.
Double cream
Whipped and folded in, it adds lightness and a smooth, creamy texture.
Maple syrup
Provides the main sweetness and maple flavor, and helps keep the custard smooth.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard until it thickens. Egg yolks set at gentle heat, but if they get too hot they curdle and turn grainy. A double boiler keeps the heat steady so the custard thickens 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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