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Dessert

Bonny-Clabber, or Loppered Milk

A cultured milk dessert made by setting skimmed milk, then adding cream, sugar, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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 ↓

Bonny-Clabber, or Loppered Milk

Ingredients

Directions

Set the milk

  1. Set a china or glass dish of skimmed milk in a warm place, covered.

  2. When it turns into a smooth, firm cake, serve in the same dish.

Serve

  1. Cut out carefully with a large spoon and place in saucers.

  2. Add cream, powdered sugar, and nutmeg to taste.

  3. Chill on ice for an hour before serving.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Skimmed milk
Sets into a firm, smooth curd as it sours and thickens in warmth.
Cream
Adds richness and a softer, creamier mouthfeel to the set milk.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the dish and dissolves easily into the cream.
Nutmeg
Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavour.

The step that matters

Setting the milk in a warm place, covered. The milk must sour and coagulate gradually in a steady warm spot without being disturbed. Undisturbed setting gives a smooth, firm curd, while moving or uneven heat can break it into a grainy or watery texture.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Peppermintfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cream, 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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