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
Make the syrup and base
Boil the coffee and sugar together until it forms a thick syrup.
Slowly pour the syrup over the beaten egg whites.
Beat the mixture until cold.
Finish and freeze
Fold in the whipped heavy cream until well combined.
Mould the mixture.
Pack it in ice and salt for three hours.
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.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Coffee + creamtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,339 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
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Coffee + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,344 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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 whites
- Whipped into a foam that gives the parfait its light, airy structure.
- Sugar
- Dissolved into the coffee to make a syrup that sweetens and softens the texture.
- Heavy cream
- Whipped and folded in to add richness and a smooth, creamy body.
- Clear black coffee
- Boiled with the sugar to give the parfait its coffee flavour.
The step that matters
Slowly pour the syrup over the beaten egg whites. The hot syrup cooks the egg white foam and helps stabilise it. Pouring slowly keeps the foam from deflating, so the mixture stays light.
“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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