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Dessert

A Large Syllabub

A sweet, chilled dessert made from ratafia cakes steeped in wine and mixed with lemon, nutmeg, almonds, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,115 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

A Large Syllabub

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Pound the ratafia cakes and steep them in the port wine, claret, and brandy.

  2. Add the grated lemon peel and juice, grated nutmeg, pounded almonds, rose water, and sugar to the mixture.

  3. Mix all ingredients well in a large bowl.

Finish and serve

  1. Pour fresh milk over the mixture and add a little rich cream.

  2. Cover the bowl to keep it warm.

  3. Serve in glasses using a silver ladle.

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 + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Port wine + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together127 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,465 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Ratafia cakes
Soak up the wine and brandy, giving the base body and an almond-like flavour.
Port wine
Adds sweetness, depth and colour to the wine base.
Claret
Contributes acidity and tannin, balancing the sweetness of the port.
Brandy
Adds alcohol strength and warming aroma to the base.
Lemon peel and juice
Brightens the flavour and provides acidity that balances the sugar.
Milk
Curdles gently with the acidic wine, forming the light, fluffy topping texture.

The step that matters

Pour the milk over the mixture. Milk poured into acidic wine curdles and thickens into a soft, cloud-like layer. Pouring gently and without stirring keeps the curds light and separated from the wine beneath.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (port wine, brandy, nutmeg, almond, rose, sugar, milk):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against port wine, brandy, nutmeg, almond, rose, sugar, milk. 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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