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Drink

Whey

A drink made by dissolving a junket tablet in water, adding to milk, warming, curdling, then straining the whey.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Whey

Why it works: Milk and wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,116 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells fenugreek, curry. The science ↓

Whey

Ingredients

Directions

Make the curd

  1. Dissolve the junket tablet in cold water.

  2. Add the mixture to the fresh milk.

  3. Warm gently until slightly above blood heat.

  4. When the curd is solid, beat it with a fork and keep warm for 10-15 minutes.

Separate and serve

  1. Strain off the whey and set it on ice.

  2. Add wine for flavoring if desired.

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. Milk + winetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (fenugreek, curry).

  2. Junket + milktop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together103 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Junket + winetop 40% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Junket tablet
Contains rennet, which causes the milk proteins to coagulate into a solid curd.
Fresh milk
Provides the proteins that set into curd, leaving liquid whey behind when strained.

The step that matters

Warming the milk gently to slightly above blood heat. Rennet works best at a gentle warmth; overheating can weaken or prevent the milk from setting into a firm curd, while cooler milk may take longer to set.

“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.

More whey recipes

Wine 118White Wine 44Lemon 26Rennet 18Mustard 11Cream of Tartar 7 See all 15 →

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