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 ↓
Syllabub
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Make the syllabub
In a large bowl, whip the heavy cream until soft peaks form.
In another bowl, combine the sweet white wine, sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest.
Gently fold the wine mixture into the whipped cream until well combined.
Serve
Spoon the syllabub into serving dishes and chill for at least 1 hour before serving.
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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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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White wine + lemontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,832 recipes
Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
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Cream + white winetop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,760 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cream + lemontop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,640 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Heavy cream
- Whipped into a foam whose trapped air bubbles give the syllabub its light, creamy body.
- Sweet white wine
- Supplies the liquid and fruity flavor that the cream absorbs, thinning and flavoring the dessert.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the wine and lemon.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and keeps the dessert from tasting heavy.
- Lemon zest
- Adds aromatic lemon oils that give a fresh citrus scent and flavor.
The step that matters
Gently fold the wine mixture into the whipped cream. Whipped cream is a fragile foam of air bubbles. Vigorous stirring pops those bubbles and deflates the cream, leaving the syllabub dense and loose instead of light.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, white wine, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Strawberryfits better
- Raspberryfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, white wine, sugar. 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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