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Dessert

Devonshire Junket

A custard dessert made with milk, brandy, cinnamon, sugar, and rennet.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,655 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Devonshire Junket

Ingredients

Directions

Make the junket

  1. Mix the cinnamon and powdered sugar in a bowl.

  2. Pour the brandy over the mixture and stir until the sugar dissolves.

  3. Add the fresh milk and rennet, stirring well.

  4. Let it sit until set, about 2 hours.

Finish

  1. Spread clotted cream on top and sprinkle with sifted sugar.

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. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cinnamon + brandytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,199 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Brandy + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Cinnamon and sugar 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

Fresh milk
Forms the base that rennet coagulates into a soft, set curd.
Rennet
Enzyme that sets the milk into a tender curd instead of a liquid.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the brandy and cinnamon.
Brandy
Contributes aroma and a warm, spirited flavour to the dish.
Powdered cinnamon
Adds warm aroma and spice to the milk.

The step that matters

Leave the milk undisturbed while it sets. Rennet's enzyme coagulates the milk proteins into a delicate curd. Stirring or moving the bowl while it sets breaks the forming curd, leaving the junket grainy and watery.

“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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