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Dessert

Solid Syllabub

A chilled dessert made from milk, wine, lemon peel, lemon juice, and rich cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: White wine and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,832 recipes. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓

Solid Syllabub

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Combine the milk and white wine in a bowl.

  2. Add the grated lemon peel and lemon juice, then sweeten to taste.

  3. Incorporate this mixture into the rich cream.

Whisk and chill

  1. Whisk the mixture for 1 hour until well combined.

  2. Pour into glasses and refrigerate.

  3. It will keep for a week in cold weather.

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. White wine + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  2. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  3. White wine + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,760 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  4. Milk + white winetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together929 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  5. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Rich cream
Provides richness and body, thickening into a light, airy texture when whisked.
White wine
Adds acidity and flavour that cut through the richness of the cream.
Lemon juice
Adds sharp acidity and brightness that balances the sweetness and richness.
Grated lemon peel
Adds aroma from the oils in the zest.
Milk
Thins the mixture and adds liquid, lightening the cream.

The step that matters

Whisking until well combined. Whisk until the mixture is combined and thickened, not beyond that point. Overbeating cream makes it grainy and can turn it toward butter. The acid from the wine and lemon helps the cream thicken gradually, so watch the texture as it firms.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Strawberryfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, white wine, 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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