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Dessert

Violet Parfait

A gelatin-based dessert flavored with violet extract, sweetened with sugar syrup, folded with whipped cream, and chilled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Violet Parfait

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Combine sugar and boiling water to make a syrup; cook until it threads.

  2. Soften gelatine in cold water, then dissolve it in the hot syrup; strain the mixture.

Build the parfait

  1. Slowly pour the syrup over the beaten egg whites, then beat until nearly cold.

  2. Add the violet extract and gently fold in the whipped cream.

  3. Pour the mixture into a mold, pack it in ice and salt, and let it stand for 4 to 6 hours.

Serve

  1. Unmold the parfait, garnish with fresh or candied violets, and serve.

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. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  3. 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

Gelatine
Sets the mixture so the parfait holds its shape when unmolded.
Egg whites
Whipped into foam, they give the parfait an airy, light texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the parfait and, cooked into syrup, helps set its structure.
Whipped cream
Adds fat and richness, making the parfait smooth and creamy.
Violet extract
Provides the characteristic floral aroma of the dish.

The step that matters

Slowly pour the syrup over the beaten egg whites. Hot syrup poured in a thin stream into whipped whites cooks and stabilises the foam. Pouring too fast or too cold can deflate the foam or leave the syrup 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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