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Dessert

Another Way to Make Dutch Flummery

A sweet, gelatinous dessert made from wine, water, lemon, sugar, isinglass, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: White wine and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,832 recipes. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓

Another Way to Make Dutch Flummery

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Boil white wine and water with lemon juice, lemon peel, and sugar for 10 minutes.

  2. Dissolve isinglass in the mixture.

Thicken and set

  1. Strain and gradually mix with beaten egg yolks.

  2. Return to heat and stir for 5 minutes.

  3. Stir until cold and pour into a mold.

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

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

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

  3. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. White wine + sugartop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,586 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

Isinglass
Gelatin-like setting agent that firms the liquid as it cools into a wobbly flummery.
Egg yolks
Thicken the mixture when gently heated and add richness and a smooth, creamy body.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sugar.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the lemon and wine.
White wine
Contributes acidity and aroma, flavoring the liquid base.

The step that matters

Return to heat and stir for 5 minutes. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heating, but if the mixture gets too hot or boils, the proteins tighten and curdle, giving a grainy texture. Keep the heat low and stir constantly.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Applefits less well
  4. Plumfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, sugar, egg. 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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