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Junket

A sweet milk custard set with rennet, brandy, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Junket

Why it works: Milk and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,655 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Junket

Ingredients

Directions

Flavour the milk

  1. Heat the milk until lukewarm.

  2. Add the sugar and cinnamon to the milk.

  3. Pour the mixture into a serving dish.

Set and serve

  1. Stir in the brandy and rennet.

  2. Let it stand until firm, then serve with cream.

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 + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Brandy + cinnamontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,199 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

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

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Milk
Provides the proteins that set into a soft, spoonable curd.
Rennet
An enzyme that clots the milk proteins, causing the mixture to set firm.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to the mild, creamy base.
Brandy
Adds a warm, aromatic note to the dessert.
Cinnamon
Adds a warm, spiced aroma.

The step that matters

Stir in the brandy and rennet while the milk is lukewarm. Rennet is an enzyme that clots milk proteins into a soft curd. It works best at lukewarm temperatures. If the milk is too hot, the enzyme is destroyed and the junket will not 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.

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