I cleaned out one of the kitchen cupboard shelves the other day, and had to throw out the last of the junket tablets as way out of date. It's a pity I didn't get to use them up. A back-of-the-cupboard type thing.
I think every country person of my era grew up eating junket as cows were aplenty and therefore milk was abundant. How easy to make a dessert with a couple of cups of milk, a junket tablet and some sugar? Easy, mostly healthy, cheap.
Surprisingly, supermarkets still stock junket tablets. Junket is a little like custard, a little like flan filling, a little like sweet tofu, but it is none of these. It is a milk-based dessert, made with vegetable rennet, usually sweetened and flavoured. In this pic I topped it with macerated strawberries and passionfruit.
Did you know that junket actually used be served to the sick in hospitals? It is nutritious and also easy to digest, so it was perfect hospital food. Back in the days hospitals actually served healthy food.
The name of junket comes from the fact that it used to be made in a rush basket, the Medieval Latin word for which is iuncāta, the French jonquette and the Middle English jonket.
Predecessors of junket were made as early as Medieval times where a cream-and-rennet mixture, sweetened and flavoured with rosewater, sugar, and spices, was an upper-class food, served to those among noble ranks. Since then it has fallen in and out of favour.
"It’s about time junket made a come back, for it’s a delicious, cheap dessert, with a fantastic texture. Junket can be flavoured with a variety of spices, eg cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom, or allspice, ginger, and mace. It can be made with any type of milk, be it cow, goat or sheep. And it can be spike with cream or spirits to make a more celebratory dessert." – David Asher.