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Dessert

Ale Posset

A warm ale posset made by boiling milk, toasted bread, egg yolk, butter, sugar, and ale.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Ale Posset

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the milk.

  2. Pour the boiled milk over the toasted bread.

Make the posset

  1. Stir in the beaten egg yolk, butter, and sugar.

  2. Mix in the hot ale.

  3. Boil for a few minutes.

  4. Let it simmer until scum rises.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,997 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the liquid base that the egg yolk thickens as it heats.
Egg yolk
Thickens the drink as its proteins set with heat, giving it a custard-like body.
Toasted bread
Soaks up the hot milk, adding body and a soft, porridge-like texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the bitterness of the ale.
Ale
Contributes its malty flavour and aroma to the drink.

The step that matters

Boil for a few minutes. Egg yolk proteins set with heat and can curdle or turn grainy if the mixture boils hard after the yolk goes in. Keep the heat controlled so the drink thickens smoothly.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, bread, egg, butter, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Parsleyfits less well
  4. Capersfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, bread, egg, butter, sugar. 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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