Why it works: Milk and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,479 recipes. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓
Possets
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the milk in a pan.
As it rises, stir in the treacle.
Continue boiling until the curd forms freely.
Serve the posset very hot.
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.
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Milk + sherrytop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,479 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Milk
- Forms the main body of the posset and sets into soft curds as it is heated and thickened.
- Treacle
- Adds sweetness and a dark, rich flavour while helping the milk begin to curdle.
The step that matters
Continue boiling until the curd forms freely. Milk proteins clot when heated and acidified, so the posset needs enough boiling for the curds to form properly. Stopping too early leaves it thin and unset.
“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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