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Devonshire Junket

A sweetened milk pudding flavored with vanilla or almond, cinnamon, brandy or rum, and set with rennet.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Devonshire Junket

Ingredients

Directions

Make the junket

  1. Mix the fresh milk with vanilla or almond flavoring and ground cinnamon if using.

  2. Add the brandy or rum and mix well.

  3. Stir in the rennet.

  4. Let the mixture stand in a warm place for 20 minutes.

Serve

  1. Dust with nutmeg or powdered cinnamon before serving.

  2. Pour thick cream over the top 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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Vanilla + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  3. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Vanilla + nutmegtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh milk
Forms the body of the junket once it is set by the rennet.
Rennet
Coagulates the milk proteins so the mixture sets into a soft curd.
Brandy or rum
Adds a warm, aromatic flavour that complements the milk and spices.

The step that matters

Let the mixture stand undisturbed. Rennet needs a warm, still environment to set the milk into a delicate curd. Stirring or moving the dish while it sets can break the forming curd and leave the junket grainy or loose.

“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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