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Master Rudstone’s Posset

A sweet, creamy beverage made with brandy, ale, sugar, eggs, and milk or cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Brandy and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,738 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. The science ↓

Master Rudstone’s Posset

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Boil the brandy, ale, and sugar together well.

  2. Beat the yolks and whites of the eggs until well mixed.

  3. Add the beaten eggs to the boiling mixture and stir well.

Finish and serve

  1. Boil the milk or cream until it reduces to 2 quarts.

  2. Let the mixture cool until the eggs thicken, then combine with the milk or cream.

  3. Stir everything together and cover with a plate 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. Brandy + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  2. Brandy + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

Sugar and milk 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

Eggs
Thicken the mixture as they set, giving the posset its custard-like body.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the ale and brandy.
Milk or cream
Provides richness and moisture, forming the bulk of the creamy texture.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour, and its acidity contributes to thickening the mixture.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool until the eggs thicken. Eggs set as they cool and their proteins coagulate. Combining them with the milk or cream too early, while still hot, can leave the mixture thin or curdled rather than smooth and thick.

“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 posset recipes

Ale 23Treacle 21Sack 19Wine 9Molasses 5Lemon 4 See all 14 →

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