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Dessert

Possets

A sweet, thickened milk dessert made with milk, sherry or marsala, and treacle or molasses.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,479 recipes. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓

Possets

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a clean saucepan, boil the milk, sherry, and treacle together.

  2. Once the milk coagulates, it is ready to serve.

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. Milk + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,479 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  2. Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Sherry + molassestop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together87 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the creamy body of the posset as it thickens when boiled with acid.
Sherry or marsala
Its acidity makes the milk curdle and set into a thick, custard-like texture.
Treacle or molasses
Adds deep sweetness and a rich, molasses-like flavour.

The step that matters

Boiling the milk with the sherry. Adding acid to hot milk makes it coagulate and thicken. If it is not watched closely, the milk can boil over or curdle unevenly, so the set may be grainy rather than smooth.

“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.

More posset recipes

Ale 23Treacle 21Sack 19Wine 9Molasses 5Lemon 4 See all 14 →

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