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Dessert

Somersetshire Syllabub

A chilled dessert of wine, milk, cream, sugar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Somersetshire Syllabub

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a large bowl, combine the port and sherry.

  2. Add sugar to taste.

Top and finish

  1. Fill the bowl with milk.

  2. After 20 minutes, cover the mixture with clotted cream.

  3. Grate nutmeg over the top and sprinkle with pounded cinnamon and nonpareil comfits.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Port wine + sherrytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together132 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, 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

Port wine
Gives the syllabub its main body, deep colour and sweet, rich flavour.
Sherry or other white wine
Adds acidity and dry flavour that balances the sweetness of the port and sugar.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the wine.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness, and mellows the sharpness of the wine.
Clotted cream
Adds fat and richness, forming a thick layer on top.

The step that matters

Covering the mixture with clotted cream. The wine's acid can thicken the milk into curds, so the milk should be poured gently and the cream spooned on carefully. This keeps the cream floating on top as a distinct layer rather than sinking into the liquid.

“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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