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Dessert

To Make Flummery

Flummery is a sweet almond and cream dessert made with stock and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

To Make Flummery

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almonds

  1. Blanch the almonds by pouring boiling water over them, then remove the skins.

  2. Soak the kernels in cold water.

  3. Beat the kernels in a mortar with a little rose water to prevent oiling.

Make the flummery

  1. Combine the beaten almonds with the calf's-foot stock in a pot and sweeten with loaf sugar.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Drain the mixture through muslin or gauze.

  4. Once slightly cooled, mix in the thick cream and stir frequently until it thickens and cools.

Set and serve

  1. Wet the molds with cold water and pour the flummery into them.

  2. Let the flummery stand for at least 5 to 6 hours before turning it out.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,465 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  4. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Sugar + rosetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,584 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's-foot stock
Provides gelatin, which sets the flummery as it cools.
Thick cream
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the set dessert.
Sweet almonds
Give the flummery its characteristic nutty, almond flavour and body.
Bitter almonds
Add a sharper, more intense almond flavour in small quantity.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the mixture to taste.

The step that matters

Let the flummery stand before turning it out. The gelatin from the stock needs time to cool and firm fully; turning the flummery out too early can cause it to slump or tear from the mold.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Pistachiofits about as well
  3. Chestnutfits less well
  4. Walnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, rose. 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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