Junket (dessert)

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Junket is a milk-based dessert, made with sweetened milk and rennet, the digestive enzyme which curdles milk. It might best be described as a loose pudding.

To make junket, milk (usually with sugar and vanilla added) is heated to approximately body temperature and the rennet, which has been dissolved in water, is mixed in to cause the milk to "set". (Temperature variations will inactivate the enzyme in the rennet, causing the dessert to fail.) The dessert is chilled prior to serving. Junket is often served with a sprinkling of grated nutmeg on top. For the majority of the 20th Century, in the eastern United States Junket was often a preferred food for ill children, mostly due to its sweetness and ease of digestion.

In the United States, junket is commonly made with a prepackaged mix of rennet and sweetener from a company eponymously also known as Junket.

The word's etymology is uncertain. It is clearly related to the Norman jonquette (a kind of cream made with boiled milk, egg yolks, sugar and caramel). However it may derive from the Italian giuncata or directly from the medieval Latin juncata. The first recorded use (in this sense) is in "The boke of nurture, folowyng Englondis gise"^[1]

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