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Dessert

Cafe Parfait

A chilled coffee gelatin dessert made with coffee, sugar, egg yolks, gelatin, cream, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Cafe Parfait

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Cafe Parfait

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the custard

  1. Soak the gelatine in cold water.

  2. Heat the coffee with half of the sugar.

  3. Beat the egg yolks slightly, then beat again while adding the remaining sugar.

  4. Make a custard with the yolks and coffee until it coats the spoon, then add the gelatine and strain.

  5. Place the mixture in a pan of ice water and stir until it thickens slightly.

Freeze in the mold

  1. Fold in the cream, beaten until very stiff.

  2. Pour into a wet mold, ensuring it completely fills the mold.

  3. Securely place the cover on the mold and wrap a strip of heavy muslin soaked in melted lard around the cover to prevent brine entry.

  4. Pack the mold in equal measures of salt and ice, covering it entirely.

  5. Let it stand for four hours.

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.

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.

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

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

  2. Coffee + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,339 recipes

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

  3. Coffee + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,344 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 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 the custard and add richness and structure when set.
Double cream
Adds richness and an airy, light texture when whipped and folded in.
Gelatine
Sets the mixture so the parfait holds its shape when frozen.
Sugar
Sweetens the parfait and softens the texture of the frozen dessert.
Strong coffee
Provides the main coffee flavour and liquid base of the custard.

The step that matters

Make the custard until it coats the spoon. Egg yolks thicken only up to a point when gently heated; overheating scrambles them into lumps. Stop when the custard coats the spoon, then cool it quickly so the gelatine and cream blend 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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