Junket is a
milk
Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of lactating mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfeeding, breastfed human infants) before they are able to digestion, digest solid food. ...
-based dessert with a jelly texture, made with sweetened milk and
rennet
Rennet () is a complex set of enzymes produced in the stomachs of ruminant mammals. Chymosin, its key component, is a protease, protease enzyme that curdling, curdles the casein in milk. In addition to chymosin, rennet contains other enzymes, su ...
, the digestive
enzyme
An enzyme () is a protein that acts as a biological catalyst by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrate (chemistry), substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different mol ...
that
curdle
Curdling is the breaking of an emulsion or colloid into large parts of different composition through the physio-chemical processes of flocculation, creaming, and coalescence. Curdling is purposeful in the production of cheese curd and tofu; u ...
s milk.
It is usually set in a mould and served cold.
Some similar desserts are
ostkaka
Ostkaka (pronounced oost-kah-kah), meaning "cheese" and meaning "cake" in Swedish, is known as Swedish cheesecake or Swedish curd cake, it is a Swedish dessert that has its roots in two different parts of Sweden, Hälsingland and Småland, th ...
,
blancmange
Blancmange (, from , ) is a sweet dessert popular throughout Europe commonly made with milk or cream, and sugar, thickened with rice flour, gelatin, corn starch, or Chondrus crispus, Irish moss (a source of carrageenan), and often flavoured wit ...
, , ,
almond tofu, and .
Preparation
To make junket, milk (usually with
sugar
Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose
Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...
and
vanilla
Vanilla is a spice derived from orchids of the genus ''Vanilla (genus), Vanilla'', primarily obtained from pods of the flat-leaved vanilla (''Vanilla planifolia, V. planifolia'').
''Vanilla'' is not Autogamy, autogamous, so pollination ...
added) is heated to approximately 100°F and the rennet, which has been dissolved in water, is mixed in to cause the milk to
set
Set, The Set, SET or SETS may refer to:
Science, technology, and mathematics Mathematics
*Set (mathematics), a collection of elements
*Category of sets, the category whose objects and morphisms are sets and total functions, respectively
Electro ...
. The dessert is chilled prior to serving. Junket is often served with a sprinkling of grated
nutmeg
Nutmeg is the seed, or the ground spice derived from the seed, of several tree species of the genus '' Myristica''; fragrant nutmeg or true nutmeg ('' M. fragrans'') is a dark-leaved evergreen tree cultivated for two spices derived from its fru ...
on top.
History
Junket evolved from an older French dish, ''jonquet'', a dish of renneted cream in which the whey is drained from curdled cream, and the remaining curds are sweetened with sugar.
In medieval England, junket was a food of the nobility made with cream and flavoured with
rosewater
Rose water, or rosewater, is a flavoured water created by steeping rose petals in water. It is typically made as a by-product during the distillation of rose petals to create rose oil for perfumes. Rose water is widely utilized to flavour cul ...
, spices, and sugar. It started to fall from favour during the Tudor era, being replaced by
syllabubs on fashionable banqueting tables, and by the 18th century, had become an everyday food sold in the streets.
For most of the 20th century in the
eastern United States
The Eastern United States, often abbreviated as simply the East, is a macroregion of the United States located to the east of the Mississippi River. It includes 17–26 states and Washington, D.C., the national capital.
As of 2011, the Eastern ...
, junket made with milk instead of cream was a preferred food for ill children, mostly due to its sweetness and ease of digestion.
Dorothy Hartley, in her ''Food in England'' from 1954, has a section on rennet followed by a section on "Junkets, Curds and Whey or Creams". She cites rum as the most common flavouring, and clotted cream as the usual accompaniment. She notes that the practice of heating the milk is a new one; originally, junket was made with milk as it was obtained from the cow, already at body temperature.
Etymology
The word's etymology is uncertain. It may be related to the
Norman
Norman or Normans may refer to:
Ethnic and cultural identity
* The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 9th and 10th centuries
** People or things connected with the Norma ...
''jonquette'' (a kind of cream made with boiled milk, egg yolks, sugar, and caramel), or to the
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
''giuncata'' or directly to the
medieval Latin
Medieval Latin was the form of Literary Latin used in Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Western Europe during the Middle Ages. It was also the administrative language in the former Western Roman Empire, Roman Provinces of Mauretania, Numidi ...
''juncata''. The first recorded use as a food is in ''The boke of nurture, folowyng Englondis gise''.
The word may also derive from the French ''jonches'', a name for freshly made milk cheese drained in a rush basket,
[''An Omelette and a Glass of Wine'' originally published in London by R. Hale Ltd, 1984. See the chapter titled "Pleasing Cheeses,"p. 206.] which itself derives from ''jonquet'', the name for such a basket.
See also
*
Junket (company)
References
{{Puddings
Puddings
Curd
British desserts
Historical foods
British puddings
French desserts
American desserts
Milk desserts