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Dessert

Devonshire Junkets

A chilled dessert made from milk, clotted cream, brandy, rennet, sugar, and nutmeg.

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 Junkets

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the junket

  1. Warm the milk gently, but do not let it get hot.

  2. Add the brandy, sugar, and rennet to the warm milk.

  3. Set the mixture in a cool place until it firms up.

Finish and serve

  1. Once firm, spread the clotted cream over the top.

  2. Dust with powdered sugar and serve cold.

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. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Brandy + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,311 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

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

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, which sets when rennet coagulates its proteins.
Prepared rennet
Enzyme that curdles the warm milk into a soft, set custard.
Clotted cream
Adds richness and fat, forming a thick topping over the set junket.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the mild, milky flavour.
Brandy
Adds aroma and a warm, spirited flavour to the dish.

The step that matters

Warm the milk gently, but do not let it get hot.. Rennet works best at blood-warm temperatures. If the milk is too hot, the enzyme is destroyed and the milk will not set properly.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Clovefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cream, brandy, 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.

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