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Devonshire Junket

Devonshire Junket is a milk curd made with warm milk, rennet, scalded cream, sugar, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar 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

Prepare

  1. Pour warm milk into a bowl and stir in rennet.

  2. Alternatively, warm cold milk to the same temperature as new milk, then add rennet.

Make the junket

  1. Add scalded cream, sugar, and cinnamon on top without breaking the curd.

  2. Add optional brandy or rum, then mix thoroughly with a spoon.

  3. Place near a warm fire or stove until set, ensuring it doesn't get too hot.

Serve

  1. Top with sugar, grated nutmeg, or a mix of nutmeg and ground cinnamon.

  2. Serve with scalded or clotted cream.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Sugar + cinnamontop 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. Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, 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

Milk
Forms the body of the junket as its proteins set into a soft curd.
Rennet
Enzyme that clots the milk proteins, causing the milk to set.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, giving a smoother, softer texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to the set junket and its topping.
Ground cinnamon
Adds a warm aroma to the junket and its topping.

The step that matters

Keep the milk warm but not hot when it sets. Rennet works best at a gentle warmth. If the milk gets too hot, the enzyme is damaged and the junket may fail to set or turn grainy and watery.

“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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