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Dessert

Spanish Flummery

A sweet dessert made with isinglass, egg yolks, lemon, sugar, and Madeira wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Spanish Flummery

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Dissolve the isinglass in 1 pint of boiling water.

  2. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks, lemon juice, lemon rind, and sugar together.

  3. Add the egg mixture to the dissolved isinglass, stirring over heat until it boils.

  4. Stir in 1 quart of Madeira wine and strain through a sieve.

Set in molds

  1. Continue stirring until nearly cold, then pour into molds.

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 + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  2. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

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

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + madeira winetop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together343 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Lemon + madeira winetop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together466 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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
Gelatin-like setting agent that firms the liquid into a sliceable, wobbly set as it cools.
Egg yolks
Thicken the mixture and add richness and a smooth, custard-like body when heated.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the acidity of the lemon juice.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and bright flavor that cuts through the richness of the yolks.
Madeira wine
Adds aroma and depth of flavor along with extra liquid.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg mixture over heat until it boils. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but if they get too hot or are stirred too little they can curdle or turn grainy. Constant stirring keeps the heat even so the mixture thickens smoothly.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Currantfits less well

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