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Dessert

King William's Ale Posset

A creamy ale-based dessert made with cream, ale, eggs, nutmeg, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

King William's Ale Posset

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Mix cream and ale in a pot.

  2. Beat egg yolks and whites together until well combined.

  3. Add the eggs to the cream and ale mixture.

  4. Grate nutmeg into the mixture and sweeten to taste.

  5. Heat the mixture over low heat, stirring constantly.

  6. Remove from heat when thickened, just before boiling.

Serve

  1. Pour into a china bowl and serve hot.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Nutmeg + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together23,364 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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

Cream
Provides fat and richness, giving the posset its smooth, silky body.
Egg yolks
Thicken the mixture as they heat, setting it into a soft, custard-like texture.
Egg whites
Add extra protein to help the mixture set and hold its structure.
Ale
Adds liquid and a malty, slightly bitter flavour that cuts through the richness.
Sugar
Sweetens the posset and balances the bitterness of the ale.

The step that matters

Remove from heat when thickened, just before boiling. Egg proteins set as they heat, but if the mixture boils it can curdle and turn grainy. Stopping just before boiling keeps it smooth and thickened.

“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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