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Dessert

London Syllabub

A sweet, frothy dessert made with wine, milk, nutmeg, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

London Syllabub

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, combine 1½ pints of port or white wine, grated nutmeg, and sugar to taste.

  2. Add 2 quarts of frothed milk to the mixture.

  3. If the wine is not sharp, adjust the amount accordingly.

  4. Top with clotted cream and sprinkle with pounded cinnamon if desired.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Nutmeg + creamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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 or white wine
Provides acidity that curdles the milk into a light, thick set cream.
Milk
Forms the bulk of the dish, lightened by froth and thickened by the acid in the wine.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the sharpness of the wine.
Clotted cream
Adds richness and fat for a smooth, luxurious topping.

The step that matters

Adding the frothed milk to the wine. Acid in the wine causes the milk proteins to curdle and thicken. Pouring the milk in steadily, rather than all at once, helps the mixture set into a light, even texture instead of separating into clumps.

“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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