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Dessert

Devonshire Junket

A sweet custard made with milk, brandy, cinnamon, sugar, and rennet, topped with clotted cream and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Devonshire Junket

Ingredients

Directions

Make the junket

  1. Mix the cinnamon and sugar in a bowl.

  2. Pour the brandy over the mixture and stir until the sugar dissolves.

  3. Add the milk and rennet, stirring well.

  4. Let the mixture sit until it sets, about 2 hours.

Top and serve

  1. Spread clotted cream on top and sprinkle with sifted sugar.

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

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

  2. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Cinnamon + brandytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,199 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Brandy + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

Cinnamon and sugar 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

Rennet
Causes the milk proteins to coagulate, turning the liquid into a soft, set custard.
Milk
Forms the body of the junket and sets into a delicate curd when rennet is added.
Brandy
Adds aroma and a warm flavour that complements the cinnamon and sugar.
Clotted cream
Adds richness and fat to the topping, balancing the lightly sweet set curd.

The step that matters

Adding the rennet. Rennet must be stirred evenly through the milk so it coagulates uniformly. Milk that is too hot can deactivate the enzyme, and if it is left unmixed, the curd may set unevenly or not at all.

“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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