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Dessert

Dutch Flummery

A sweet, lemony dessert thickened with egg yolks and isinglass, set in a mold after cooling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,950 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Dutch Flummery

Ingredients

Directions

Make the flummery

  1. In a saucepan, combine white wine, sugar, lemon juice, lemon peel, cinnamon, and dissolved isinglass.

  2. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring constantly, but do not allow it to boil.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in the well-beaten egg yolks.

  4. Continue stirring until the mixture is completely cool.

Set and serve

  1. Pour into a mold and refrigerate until set.

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 + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. White wine + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

White wine
Provides the liquid base and a light acidic flavour that balances the sweetness.
Isinglass
Gelatin-like protein that sets the liquid into a firm, wobbly jelly when chilled.
Egg yolks
Thicken and enrich the mixture, giving it a creamier body and a yellow colour.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and offsets the sugar.

The step that matters

Do not let the mixture boil. Boiling can curdle the egg yolks and weaken the setting power of the isinglass, leaving a grainy or loose result. Gentle heat keeps the custard smooth and the jelly firm.

Swap the cinnamon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, sugar, lemon, egg):

  1. Tarragonfits about as well
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Cinnamonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, sugar, lemon, egg. 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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