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Dessert

Dutch Flummery

A gelatin-based dessert made with eggs, lemon, wine, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,273 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Dutch Flummery

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gelatine

  1. Soak the gelatine and lemon rind in the water for 20 minutes.

  2. Simmer gently until the gelatine is dissolved.

Make and set the flummery

  1. Beat the eggs, then add the wine, lemon juice, strained water, and gelatine.

  2. Sweeten to taste and stir by the side of the fire until the mixture thickens.

  3. Pour into a mould rinsed with cold water and set aside until firm.

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. Lemon + sherrytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,273 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  3. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + sherrytop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,141 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm, wobbly jelly as it cools.
Eggs
Add richness and body, and thicken the mixture as it warms.
Castor sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the lemon and wine.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and fresh citrus flavour that brightens the dessert.
Sherry, madeira, or raisin wine
Adds depth of flavour and aroma to the jelly.

The step that matters

Stirring the eggs gently over the heat. Egg proteins set and can curdle or turn grainy if the mixture gets too hot. Keeping the heat low and stirring steadily lets it thicken smoothly.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, sherry):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, sherry. 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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