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Dessert

Everlasting, or Solid Syllabubs

A thickened cream dessert flavored with raisin wine and lemon, chilled and served in glasses.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Everlasting, or Solid Syllabubs

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syllabub

  1. In a deep pan, mix the thick raw cream, refined sugar, and fine raisin wine.

  2. Add the grated peel and juice of the lemons.

  3. Beat or whisk the mixture in one direction for 30 minutes.

  4. Strain the mixture through a sieve with a bit of thin mustard laid smooth in the shallow end.

Chill and serve

  1. Refrigerate until the next day.

  2. Serve in glasses.

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. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Wine + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Raisin + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,742 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

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

Thick raw cream
Whipped with acid and sugar, it forms the body and light, set structure of the syllabub.
Lemon juice
Acidity thickens the cream and gives the dish its bright, sharp flavour.
Refined sugar
Sweetens the dish and balances the sharpness of the lemon and wine.
Raisin wine
Adds liquid and a rich, fruity aroma that flavours the cream.

The step that matters

Beating in one direction for 30 minutes. Steady whisking incorporates air and thickens the cream as the acid works on it. Stopping early or stirring back and forth can leave the mixture loose and unstable.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sugar, wine, lemon):

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar, wine, lemon. 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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