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Cafe Parfait

A frozen coffee dessert made with a sugar‑water syrup, egg yolks, coffee, and whipped cream.

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

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 ↓

Cafe Parfait

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Make a syrup by combining sugar and water in a saucepan.

  2. Add the beaten egg yolks and black coffee to the syrup.

  3. Stir over low heat until the mixture thickens.

  4. Remove from heat and cool the mixture on ice, then beat until cool.

Fold and freeze

  1. Gently fold in the whipped cream.

  2. Pour the mixture into a mold or ice cream freezer.

  3. Pack with 2 parts ice to 1 part salt and let it sit for 2 hours.

  4. Do not freeze hard like ice cream; in cold weather, you can set it outside for a while.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Coffee + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,339 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  3. Sugar + coffeetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,344 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. 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 when gently heated and add richness and a smooth texture.
Cream
Adds air and richness, giving the frozen dessert a light, soft texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and keeps the frozen dessert softer by lowering its freezing point.
Black coffee
Provides the main coffee flavor and aroma.

The step that matters

Stir the custard over low heat until it thickens. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat, but high heat or overcooking can scramble them into lumps and leave a grainy texture.

“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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