Why it works: Port wine and sherry match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 132 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓
A Birthday Syllabub
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the base
In a large bowl, combine the sugar and lemon juice, stirring well.
Add the port wine, sherry, and brandy, then grate in the nutmeg.
Curdle and serve
Place the bowl under a copper to fill it with milk.
To serve, place a portion of the curd in each glass, fill with whey, and top with a little rich cream.
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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Port wine + sherrytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together132 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Sherry + brandytop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,209 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Port wine + brandytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together127 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the sharp lemon and the alcohol.
- Lemon juice
- Its acid sours the drink and helps separate the milk into curds and whey.
- Milk
- Forms the curds and whey that give syllabub its light, layered body.
- Port wine
- Adds fruity depth, colour and alcohol flavour to the base.
- Sherry
- Contributes nutty, dry aroma and additional alcohol flavour.
- Rich cream
- Adds fat and richness to the finished top layer.
The step that matters
Combining the lemon juice and wines with the sugar before adding milk. The acid in the lemon juice and wines is what causes the milk to curdle. If the base is not well mixed and acidic enough, the milk will not separate cleanly into curds and whey.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, port wine, sherry, brandy, nutmeg, milk, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Applefits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, port wine, sherry, brandy, nutmeg, milk, cream. 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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