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Dessert

Devonshire Junket

A milk-based custard thickened with rennet, sweetened with sugar, flavored with rum or brandy, topped with clotted cream and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream 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. Warm the milk to just below boiling.

  2. In a bowl, mix the rum or brandy with the castor sugar.

Set the junket

  1. Pour the warm milk into the bowl and stir well.

  2. Add the rennet and stir again.

  3. Place the bowl in a stable location and let it sit undisturbed until set.

Serve

  1. Before serving, top with clotted cream or thick cream and grate nutmeg over it.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Rum + nutmegtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together646 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Milk + rumtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together967 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Rum + sugartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,908 recipes

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

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 dish, and the rennet sets it into a soft curd.
Rennet
Causes the milk proteins to coagulate, turning the liquid into a set custard-like curd.
Castor sugar
Adds sweetness and dissolves easily into the rum or brandy mixture.
Rum or brandy
Adds aroma and a warm flavour that complements the milk and sugar.

The step that matters

Let it sit undisturbed until set. Rennet needs a still, stable environment to form a continuous curd. Moving or stirring the bowl while it sets can break the forming network, leaving a grainy or watery result.

Swap the nutmeg

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, rum, sugar, 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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