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Dessert

Spanish Syllabub

A frothy dessert made with almonds, rose water, sugar, lemon juice, fruit juice, wine, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Spanish Syllabub

Why it works: Almond and strawberry work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 433 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Spanish Syllabub

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Blanch and pound the almonds with rose water in a mortar.

  2. Mix in the pounded sugar, lemon juice, and strawberry or raspberry juice.

Make the syllabub

  1. Add the white wine and whole milk (or warm cream) to the mixture.

  2. Whip or mill the mixture until it froths nicely.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Almond + strawberrytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together433 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Strawberry + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,130 recipes

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

  4. Strawberry + white winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together60 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  5. Lemon + white winetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Whole milk
Provides the liquid and fat that whip into a light, creamy froth.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the sharpness of the lemon juice.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps curdle the milk into a thick, rich texture.
White wine
Adds acidity and flavour, thinning the mixture before it is whipped.
Almonds
Contribute richness and body to the flavour base of the mixture.

The step that matters

Whip or mill the mixture until it froths nicely. Whipping incorporates air into the liquid, creating a light foam. Stopping too early leaves it thin, and overbeating a dairy mixture can turn it grainy or split it, so watch the texture closely.

“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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