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Dessert

Angel Parfait in Mold

A chilled dessert made from gelatin, sugar syrup, whipped egg whites, and cream, set in a mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Angel Parfait in Mold

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gelatine and syrup

  1. Soak gelatin in cold water for 5 minutes.

  2. Add boiling water to gelatin and set aside.

  3. Boil granulated sugar with water until it forms a thread. Remove the syrup from heat.

Make the egg base

  1. Beat egg whites until very stiff.

  2. Slowly pour the syrup into the egg whites while whipping until smooth.

  3. Strain the gelatin into the egg mixture. Stir until well mixed.

  4. Set the mixture in a cold place.

Fold and freeze

  1. Whip the cream until very stiff.

  2. Fold the egg mixture into the whipped cream. Add vanilla extract.

  3. Freeze in a solid mold or individual molds with tight covers to prevent salt or ice water from seeping in.

  4. Pack the frozen dessert in salt and ice.

  5. Let stand for 3 to 4 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. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

  3. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Egg + vanillatop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together27,347 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 whites
Whipped to a stiff foam that gives the parfait its light, airy structure.
Whipping cream
Whipped to trap air and add richness, giving a creamy, smooth texture when frozen.
Gelatine
Sets the mixture so the parfait holds its shape and stays tender when frozen.
Granulated sugar
Cooked into a thread-stage syrup that sweetens and stabilises the whipped egg whites.

The step that matters

Pouring the syrup into the egg whites. The syrup must be hot and poured slowly while the whites are whipping; this cooks the whites gently and builds a stable, smooth foam that holds air through freezing.

“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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