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Dessert

Tipsy Parson

A dessert of macaroons soaked in sherry, topped with a sweet custard and frothy egg white mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sherry and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,479 recipes. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓

Tipsy Parson

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Pour enough sherry wine over the macaroons to cover them.

  2. In a kettle, bring 1 quart of milk to a boil.

Make the custard

  1. Add 4 eggs and sugar to the boiling milk, stirring until thick.

  2. Pour the thick mixture over the macaroons.

Top and bake

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then fold in powdered sugar.

  2. Spread the egg white mixture on top and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until golden brown.

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. Sherry + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,479 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  2. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  3. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  4. Wine + milktop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (fenugreek, curry).

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

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

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Macaroons
Absorb the sherry and hold the custard, giving the dessert its base structure.
Sherry wine
Adds flavor and moisture as it soaks into the macaroons.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and supplies moisture.
Eggs
Egg proteins set when heated, thickening the custard and structuring the topping.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to the custard and helps stabilize the egg white topping.

The step that matters

Stirring the eggs and sugar into the boiling milk until thick. Egg proteins thicken the milk as they heat, but if the mixture overheats or stops being stirred, the eggs can scramble and turn 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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