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Maple Syrup Parfait

A chilled custard dessert made with egg yolks, maple syrup, cream, and walnuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Maple syrup and walnut work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 309 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Maple Syrup Parfait

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg yolks until creamy.

  2. Add the maple syrup and cook in a double boiler until it thickens to custard consistency.

  3. Remove from heat and let cool completely.

Finish and freeze

  1. Once cooled, fold in the beaten cream and chopped walnuts.

  2. Pack the mixture in ice and salt for four 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 + walnuttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together309 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Cream + maple syruptop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together607 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Cream + walnuttop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  4. Egg + walnuttop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,037 recipes

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

  5. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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 yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness as they set gently with heat.
Cream
Adds lightness and a smooth, airy texture once beaten and folded in.
Maple syrup
Provides the main sweetness and flavor, and thickens the custard as it cooks.
Walnuts
Add crunch and a nutty flavor that contrasts with the smooth base.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard in a double boiler. Egg yolks can scramble if overheated. Gentle indirect heat thickens the mixture smoothly, and cooling it completely before folding in the cream keeps the cream from melting and deflating.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, cream, maple syrup):

  1. Pecansfits better
  2. Walnutthe original
  3. Nutsfits about as well
  4. Almondfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cream, maple syrup. 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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