Junket (pudding) or Junked custard
Also known as curds and whey dessert or sweetened curds.
Junket is a dairy milk-based dessert made with dairy milk (any dairy milk like goat, sheep and buffalo) and rennet. The rest of the ingredients heavily varies as you can use yogurt or/and kefir or none of those. If you wish, add maple syrup or honey, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, ginger and/or granola, liquors, cream, fruits or chocolate for special occasions.
Technically, due to the use of the rennet, it can be recognised by someone as a sweet variant of cheese.
Nowadays, we can call it a dessert.
Some claimed that it was a traditional English dish where it was popular for a very long time. However, different variants of it have been consumed in the rest of Europe under other names.
It is a light food and therefore easy to digest. Because of that, junket was used as a transition food for babies and in the hospitals to feed the patients. It was recognised as healthy food and even recommended along with milk, cheeses, vegetables etc.
How to make a junket?
You will need dairy milk of your choice (cow`s, goat`s, sheep’s or buffalo`s), preferably full-fat and high in protein for more curds, but not homogenised. For best texture, use ready yogurt or kefir (or make some as an extra step if not having them), rennet (liquid or tablets), multicooker or a simply sous pan.
For one portion, you will need:
1L of high in protein and fat dairy milk
1 tablespoon active kefir or yogurt . Make some if you don't have any
1/3 cup maple syrup or honey, caramel or any other syrup (or to taste). You can replace it with 3 tbs of sugar. However, some prefer to use natural honey than refined sugar.
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon cardamom (or to taste)
2 drops liquid rennet or 1/16th of a rennet tablet
You can also add a pinch of lemon zest, chocolate or fruits. You can skip some ingredients, if not preferable, like nutmeg or cardamon or add others like vanilla or rosewater. You also can add fresh fruit and clotted cream as the last step when transferring the junket to the individual servings. You can also serve it with biscuits or biscuits crumble.
Then follow the steps below.
1. Warm your milk up gently (on the stove or in the multicooker) until it reaches 35C(95F) – 40C(104F) degrees. Lukewarm is preferable. A thermometer is not needed as the milk should be warm to the touch but not hot.
2. Culture your milk as you add a spoon of kefir or yogurt into the milk.
3. Cover the pot, and allow it to incubate for 1 hour. If using a multicooker, just set it at 35C(90F) for an hour or two. Do not exceed 2 hours which is the maximum.
4. After the incubation time, mix in the maple syrup, salt, and other spices. Stir well. Do not add the rennet at this stage.
5. Instead, dissolve the rennet in 1/4 cup of water and add this to the milk. Stir again
6. Pour the junket into individual cups and leave it to set for about 3 hours before transferring it to the fridge.
Do not disturb, shake, stir or try to move them before they set.
Then enjoy and consume in 3 days.
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