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Syllabub Under the Cow

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cider and currant work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 500 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓

Syllabub Under the Cow

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large punch bowl, combine the cider and strong beer.

  2. Grate in the nutmeg and sweeten to taste.

  3. Milk into the mixture until it froths strongly.

  4. Let it stand for 1 hour.

  5. Wash and prick the currants, then warm them by the fire until plump.

  6. Strew the plump currants over the syllabub before serving.

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. Cider + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together500 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  2. Cider + beertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together55 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Beer + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together298 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Nutmeg + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Milk + curranttop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

Swap the currant

The recipe marks currant as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cider, beer, nutmeg, sugar, milk):

  1. Applefits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cider, beer, nutmeg, sugar, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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