Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Posset, Sack
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the cream and grated sweet biscuits together.
Add sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg to the mixture.
Warm the sherry and stir it into the cream mixture.
Pour the mixture quickly from one vessel to another until smooth.
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.
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Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,917 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Biscuit + nutmegtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together368 recipes
Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).
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Biscuit + cinnamontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together312 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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
- Cream
- Provides fat and richness, giving the posset its smooth, thick body.
- Sweet biscuits
- Thicken the cream as they break down and add a toasty, sweet flavour.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the sherry.
- Sherry
- Adds acidity and a distinctive aromatic, fortified-wine flavour.
The step that matters
Pour the mixture quickly from one vessel to another until smooth. Pouring from height cools the mixture and aerates it while the cream is still hot enough to thicken; pouring too slowly lets it set lumpy or grainy. Smoothness comes from breaking up the thickening biscuit particles as the mixture cools.
“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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