![]() ![]() In 1878, Frederiksen, a former dairyman and recent immigrant opened a branch of the Hansen Laboratory in New York State, which at the time was the center of the American cheesemaking industry. Frederiksen who brought rennet extract to the United States. According to Hansen, he sought to make “an extract of high keeping quality, uniform strength, and free from contaminating impurities characteristic of the, often foul, liquid of uncertain coagulating power produced by soaking the stomachs in whey in the dairy.” Hansen, a Danish chemist and pharmacist, established the Hansen’s Technical-Chemical Laboratory in Denmark to create a stable rennet extract for the cheese-making industry. When mixed with milk or cream it coagulates, producing cheese curds and whey (the liquid that is left after curds form). From the California Newspapers Archive.īut what is rennet? Today, it is typically a plant-based product, but historically, rennet is the digestive enzyme found in the stomach lining of nursing calves, sheep, goats, deer, elk, and other ruminant animals. Advertisement for the California Milk Producers’ Association from The Los Angeles Herald, January 11, 1921. However, junket seems to fallen out of favor by the 1960s. ![]() It remained a popular dessert and was eventually touted as a beneficial food for “invalids and healthy people of all ages” since it encouraged the consumption of milk, which was considered part of a healthy diet for most of the 20 th century. Once reserved for European nobility in the 14 th and 15 th century, junket eventually made its way to American dining room tables by the late 19 th century. The name might have been derived from a French dish from the Middle Ages, made from a sweetened curdled cream known as jonquet. What sounds like a Shakespearean insult, is actually a custard-like, rennet-based dessert with an incredibly long history. When I came across the bizarre sounding name while looking through Famous Recipes for Baker’s Chocolate and Breakfast Cocoa published in 1928, I leapt at the chance to recreate this funny-sounding treat. Growing up on the West Coast and in the latter half of the 20 th century, I never had the pleasure of eating hermits (a type of spice cookie from New England), buckles (a cake made with fruit and streusel), or in the case of today’s historic recipe, junket. One of my favorite things about going through the Museum’s collection of recipe books is discovering the variety of odd-named desserts and treats that were once popular favorites but have since faded into memory. ![]()
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