Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Cafe Parfait
Ingredients
Directions
Make the cream
In a bowl, combine thick cream, powdered sugar, coffee, and vanilla.
Whip the mixture until frothy, skimming off the froth as it rises. Continue whipping and skimming until no more froth rises.
Freeze
Let the mixture stand in a very cold place for 15 minutes.
Transfer the froth into a solid mold with a tightly fitting cover.
Pack the mold in ice and salt for 3 to 4 hours before serving.
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 + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Coffee + vanillatop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,391 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,301 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
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Cream + coffeetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,339 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
- Thick cream
- Whipped into a light foam that becomes the body of the parfait.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the mixture and dissolves easily into the cream.
- Very black coffee
- Gives the parfait its coffee flavour.
The step that matters
Skimming off the froth while whipping. Removing the froth as it rises lets the cream keep whipping into a fine, stable foam rather than collapsing. Continuing until no more froth rises ensures the foam has fully formed before it is frozen.
“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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