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Dessert

Solid Syllabub

A chilled, frothy dessert made from cream, wine, lemon, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Solid Syllabub

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syllabub

  1. Combine the cream, white wine, lemon juice, and grated lemon rind in a bowl.

  2. Sweeten to taste and whip until frothy.

  3. Remove the froth as it rises.

  4. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve.

  5. Refrigerate overnight in a cool place.

Serve

  1. Fill glasses halfway with the strained mixture and top with the froth.

  2. Serve immediately; it will keep for several days.

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. White wine + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  3. Cream + white winetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,760 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  4. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Cream + lemontop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,640 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Rich cream
Provides the fat and body that hold the whipped froth together.
White wine
Adds acidity and flavour that cut through the richness of the cream.
Lemon juice
Acidity that thickens the cream slightly and brightens the flavour.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture, balancing the acidity of the wine and lemon.

The step that matters

Remove the froth as it rises. Whipping adds air to the cream; if the froth is left to build it over-whips and turns grainy or separates. Skimming it off as it forms keeps the top light and the base smooth.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, white wine, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, white wine, 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.

More syllabub recipes

Whipped 15Staffordshire 7Lemon 6Birthday 3 See all 113 →

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