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Drink

Whippped Syllabubs

A chilled alcoholic drink made with cream, sherry, brandy, lemon juice, nutmeg, and sugar, topped with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Whippped Syllabubs

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix the cream, sherry, brandy, lemon juice, nutmeg, and sugar together in a bowl.

  2. Pour the mixture into glasses.

  3. Top each glass with a heap of whipped cream.

  4. Whisk the mixture to a stiff froth.

  5. Serve without whipped cream on top.

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. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Sherry + brandytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Brandy + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,311 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Cream
Forms the body of the dessert and whisks into a light, stiff froth by trapping air in its fat.
Sherry
Adds wine flavour and acidity that helps thicken the cream slightly.
Brandy
Adds a strong spirit aroma and flavour that balances the sweetness.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps the cream thicken.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharp lemon and alcohol.

The step that matters

Whisk to a stiff froth. Cream traps air in a network of fat, so whisking must stop at stiff peaks. Overwhipping makes cream grainy and can cause it to separate into butter and liquid.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sherry, brandy, nutmeg, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sherry, brandy, nutmeg, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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Whipped 15Staffordshire 7Lemon 6Birthday 3 See all 113 →

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