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Devonshire Junket

A milk pudding thickened with rennet, sweetened with sugar and cinnamon, served with scalded cream.

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 ↓

Devonshire Junket

Ingredients

Directions

Set the curd

  1. Pour warm milk into a bowl.

  2. Stir in rennet.

  3. Add scalded cream, sugar, and cinnamon on top without breaking the curd.

  4. Place the mixture in a close net and hang it up to drain and shape.

  5. If using cold milk, warm it to the same temperature as new milk before adding rennet.

  6. Stir the mixture well.

  7. Place it near a warm fire or stove until it sets, avoiding excessive heat.

Finish and serve

  1. Once set, top with sugar, grated nutmeg, or ground cinnamon.

  2. Serve with scalded cream.

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. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Cinnamon + brandytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,199 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Milk
Its proteins set into a soft curd once the rennet acts on them.
Rennet
An enzyme that clots the milk proteins, causing the mixture to set.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy mouthfeel to the set curd.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to the curd and its topping.

The step that matters

Keep the milk warm, not hot, while it sets. Rennet is an enzyme that works best at mild warmth. Excessive heat weakens or destroys its activity, so the curd may fail to set properly. Warming cold milk to the same temperature as fresh milk before adding rennet helps it set evenly.

“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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