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Dessert

Maple Parfait

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Maple syrup and cream 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. Beat the yolks of 6 eggs in a bowl.

  2. Add ¾ cup maple syrup and mix well.

  3. Place the mixture in a double boiler and stir for about 15 minutes until it coats the back of a spoon.

  4. Remove from heat and beat for a few minutes until slightly cooled.

Freeze

  1. Gently fold in 1 pint of whipped heavy cream.

  2. Pour the mixture into a mold or small tin pail.

  3. Pack the mold in a mixture of ice and coarse sea salt, using about 1 part salt to 3 parts ice.

  4. Let it stand for 3 to 4 hours before serving.

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. Maple syrup + creamtop 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 the custard as they cook and give the parfait its rich, smooth body.
Maple syrup
Provides sweetness and maple flavor throughout the parfait.
Heavy cream
Whipped and folded in to add lightness and a creamy, airy texture.

The step that matters

Cook the custard gently in the double boiler. Egg yolks can scramble if overheated. Gentle, indirect heat thickens the mixture smoothly until it coats a spoon, and cooling it slightly before folding in the cream keeps the cream from deflating.

“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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