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Dessert

Angel Parfait

A chilled dessert made with a sugar syrup, beaten egg whites, whipped cream, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Angel Parfait

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup and whites

  1. Boil sugar and water until the syrup threads when dropped from a spoon.

  2. Pour the syrup slowly onto the beaten egg whites, beating until the mixture is cool.

Assemble and freeze

  1. Add the whipped cream and vanilla, and mix well.

  2. Pour into an ice cream mold and pack in salt and ice for three hours.

  3. Optional: Add chopped cherries, marshmallows, and ground nuts.

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 + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

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

  5. Egg + vanillatop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together27,347 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

Sugar
Dissolves into syrup that sweetens the parfait and gives it a smooth, firm texture when cooled.
Egg whites
Beaten into a foam that gives the parfait its light, airy structure.
Double cream
Whipped to add richness and fat, giving a creamy, smooth mouthfeel.
Vanilla
Adds aroma and flavour to the sweet, creamy base.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot syrup into the egg whites. The syrup must be poured slowly while beating so it cooks the whites into a stable foam; pouring too fast can deflate the foam or leave it lumpy.

“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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