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Drink

Modern Cookery

A drink of milk with port, sherry, brandy, lemon juice and sugar, served as curd and whey with rich cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Port wine and sherry match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 132 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Modern Cookery

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grate the nutmeg into a bowl.

  2. Milk the cow to fill the bowl.

Assemble

  1. In serving glasses, add a portion of curd.

  2. Fill the glasses with whey.

  3. Pour a little rich cream on top.

Flavour

  1. Optionally, rasp lemon rind into the sugar for flavor.

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. Port wine + sherrytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together132 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Sherry + brandytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Port wine + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together127 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the curds and whey that make up the body of the posset.
Port wine
Adds deep fruity flavour and some acidity to the dish.
Sherry
Adds nutty, dry aroma and flavour that deepens the drink.
Brandy
Adds warmth and aroma, carrying the flavours of the spirits through the dish.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity, which brightens the flavour and helps set the milk.
Sugar
Provides sweetness that balances the acidity and the alcohol.

The step that matters

Fill the glasses with whey. Curds and whey separate, so pour the whey gently over the spooned curd to keep the layers distinct instead of stirring them together.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, port wine, sherry, brandy, sugar, nutmeg, cream):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, port wine, sherry, brandy, sugar, nutmeg, cream. 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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