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Dessert

Parfaits of Tea and Orange Peel

A chilled dessert made from tea, sugar, eggs, cream, and candied orange peel.

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

Parfaits of Tea and Orange Peel

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Mix the tea, sugar, and beaten egg yolks together.

  2. Cook in a double boiler until thick and creamy.

  3. Let it cool, then fold in the whipped cream and beaten egg whites.

Add the peel

  1. Cut the candied orange peel into small pieces and soak in maraschino or orange syrup until very soft.

  2. Fold the soaked peel into the mixture.

Freeze and serve

  1. Pack the mixture in ice and salt for three to four hours.

  2. Serve garnished with candied peel.

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

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

  2. Black tea + orangetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 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. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Sugar and orange barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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

Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard when cooked, and whipped whites add lightness to the finished parfait.
Heavy cream
Whipped cream adds airy body and a rich, smooth mouthfeel.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and softens the texture of the frozen dessert.
Strong black tea
Provides the main flavor, with a slightly bitter edge that balances the sweetness.
Candied orange peel
Adds citrus aroma and a chewy, tender bite once softened in syrup.

The step that matters

Cook the custard gently in a double boiler. Egg yolks set gradually with gentle, indirect heat. Too much heat can scramble them into lumps, so stir steadily and stop cooking once the mixture is thick and creamy.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (black tea, sugar, cream, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits about as well
  3. Lemonfits about as well
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against black tea, sugar, cream, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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