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Dessert

Dutch Flummery

A sweet, gelatinous dessert made with isinglass, lemon, eggs, wine, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sherry and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,209 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Dutch Flummery

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Combine water, isinglass, and lemon rind in a lined saucepan.

  2. Simmer gently until the isinglass dissolves.

  3. Strain the mixture into a basin.

Make the custard

  1. Stir in the well-beaten eggs, strained lemon juice, and wine.

  2. Sweeten with pounded sugar to taste.

  3. Pour the mixture into a jug.

  4. Place the jug in a saucepan of boiling water.

  5. Stir continuously until it thickens, ensuring it does not boil.

Set and serve

  1. Strain the mixture into an oiled mold or a mold soaked in water.

  2. Allow it to set in a cool place.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Lemon + sherrytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,273 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

  4. Lemon + sugartop 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).

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Isinglass
Sets the liquid into a firm, jelly-like body as it cools.
Eggs
Thicken the mixture when gently heated and add richness to the set dish.
Sherry, madeira, or raisin wine
Adds flavour and acidity, balancing the sweetness of the sugar.
Sugar
Sweetens the dish and balances the sharpness of the lemon and wine.
Lemon
Adds bright acidity and aroma from the rind and juice.

The step that matters

Stir continuously until it thickens, ensuring it does not boil.. Egg proteins set when heated, but if the mixture boils they curdle and turn grainy. Gentle, constant stirring over simmering water thickens the custard smoothly.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sherry, sugar, brandy. 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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