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Dessert

Devonshire Junket

A sweet custard dessert made with milk, sugar, vanilla or almond essence, alcohol, rennet, and dusted with cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,287 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Devonshire Junket

Ingredients

Directions

Make the junket

  1. In a bowl, combine lukewarm milk with sugar and flavoring.

  2. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons of your choice of alcohol.

  3. Stir in 2 teaspoons of rennet.

  4. Place the mixture in a warm spot for 20 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Dust the top with powdered cinnamon.

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

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

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

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

  3. Vanilla + rumtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together728 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

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

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
Forms the base that the rennet sets into a soft, custard-like curd.
Rennet
Enzyme that coagulates the warm milk, turning it into a set junket.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to the milk before it sets.
Thick cream
Adds richness and a cool, creamy contrast when served on top.

The step that matters

Keep the mixture warm and still while it sets. Rennet works best on lukewarm milk; if the milk is too hot the enzyme is damaged, and if it is moved or stirred while setting the curd can break up instead of forming a smooth, firm 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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