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Angel Parfait
Boil a cupful of sugar and half a cupful of water to the soft ball stage. Pour on the whites of two eggs beaten until foaming; beat until cold. Flavor with scant teaspoonful of violet extract, and fold in the whip from three cupfuls of cream. Turn into a mould. Press down the cover over a sheet of paper. Bury in ice and salt for four hours. Turn from the mould, garnish and serve.
A still-frozen parfait built on an Italian meringue — no churning, no custard. The whole thing depends on getting the syrup right and on folding, not stirring.
- Soft ball stage235–240°F on a candy thermometer. Below that the meringue stays slack and the parfait will freeze grainy; above it the syrup sets in threads before it disperses through the whites.
- Pour, then beat until truly coldAdd the syrup in a thin stream down the side of the bowl with the mixer running, then keep beating until the bowl is cool to the hand — ten minutes or more. Warm meringue will deflate the cream on contact.
- Raw whitesThe hot syrup brings the whites up considerably but not reliably to a pasteurizing temperature, and nothing further cooks them. Use pasteurized egg whites if serving anyone pregnant, elderly, very young or immune-compromised.
- "The whip from three cupfuls of cream"Older cooks whipped cream and skimmed the stiff froth off the top, returning the unwhipped liquid to the bowl, so the usable whip was less than the full whipped volume. Whip three cups of heavy cream to soft peaks and use it all.
- Violet extractStill sold, but strength varies between brands. Start with half a teaspoon and taste the meringue before folding. Rose water or a spoonful of crème de violette can be substituted.
- Ice and saltThe mould was buried in a bucket packed with about one part rock salt to four to six parts crushed ice, topped up as it melted. A home freezer does the same work: cover the surface with plastic film pressed flat, lid the mould, and give it six hours or overnight.
- The sheet of paperNot decorative. It seals the join so brine cannot seep past the lid and salt the dessert. Keep the equivalent step whichever method you use.
- UnmouldingDip the mould in warm water for five to ten seconds, run a thin knife around the edge and invert onto a chilled plate. Return to the freezer for twenty minutes if it softens.
- YieldRoughly a quart and a half, more if all the whipped cream is folded in; eight to ten servings. Candied violets are the period garnish.
Parfait entered American cookbooks in the late nineteenth century as the still-frozen relative of ice cream: no crank, no dasher, just a meringue or custard base lightened with whipped cream and packed in a lidded mould in ice and salt. The French word means simply "perfect," and in France still denotes a frozen dessert rather than the layered sundae in a tall glass that the name later came to mean in the United States. "Angel" here signals whiteness and lightness, the same logic that named angel food cake — a dessert made with whites alone, and one that presumes a household with a use for the leftover yolks. Violet flavouring was fashionable in the same years: candied violets, violet pastilles and violet-scented confectionery ran through Victorian and Edwardian sweets, and extract sold alongside vanilla and rose in the grocer's line. A dish like this was meant to look ornamental on the table, and it quietly advertised access to a steady supply of ice.