Name: Another Wat to Make Large Syllabub
Ingredients: 1 large glass of madeira; 1 glass of rich sweet wine; ½ cup of ratafia; ½ pound of pounded loaf sugar; Grated peel of 1 large lemon; Juice of 2 lemons; A little pounded cinnamon; 1 quart of rich cream; Macaroons (for serving)

Why it works: Lemon and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,950 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Another Wat to Make Large Syllabub

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syllabub

In a large bowl, combine the madeira, sweet wine, ratafia, sugar, lemon peel, lemon juice, and cinnamon.
Stir until the sugar is dissolved.
Add the cream and whisk until well combined.

Serve

Place macaroons in the bottom of a dish and pile the frothed syllabub on top.
Refrigerate; it can be kept for 9 to 10 days and tastes better after 3 to 4 days.

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.

Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,950 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Wine + lemontop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,157 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Wine + cinnamontop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,170 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

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

Cream: Whisked into a rich, airy froth that gives the dessert its body.
Sugar: Sweetens the wine mixture and dissolves fully to balance the acidity.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the sweet wine and cream.
Madeira: Provides a fortified wine base with depth and aroma.

The step that matters

Whisk the cream until well combined. Cream whisked with an acidic wine mixture can thicken and curdle if overworked, so whisk until smooth and stop once the mixture is evenly combined and holds its froth.

Swap the lemon

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

Vanillafits better
Applefits better
Raisinfits better
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against wine, sugar, cinnamon, 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.

Lemon Cake228 recipes

Lemon Ice147 recipes

Lemon Sherbet103 recipes

Cinnamon Rolls71 recipes

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Another Wat to Make Large Syllabub