History of Junket

The history of junket according to folklore, began in the Devonshire region where is was known as ‘clouted creame’. There are poems written about junket:

Spenser: “And beare with you both wine and juncates fit and bid him eat.” 

Milton: “With stories told of many a feat How faery Mab the Junkets eat”. 

Walter Besant: “She made him stand by and help make a Junket which Devonshire people believe cannot be made outside of Dartmoor.” 

Junket was originally made as ‘Curds and Whey’ as from the nursery rhyme: “Little Miss Muffet Sat on her tuffet eating her curds and whey” and it was made by adding a small piece of preserved calf stomach to new milk. 

Junket was such a popular delicacy that Londoners travelling to Devonshire to enjoy their curds and whey were known to go on ‘A Junketing Trip”. 

This then evolved into referring to a festive social trip or social gathering such as a picnic, as a junket  - though now it has taken on the meaning of an expedition at someone else’s expense! 

In 1874, Chr Hansen produced the world’s first standardised and pure rennet, and in around 1890, Chr Hansen’s Laboratory brought out a junket tablet made from the standardised rennet.

The Australian branch of Chr Hansen continued the tradition of making junket tablets until 2006 when a commercial decision made it unviable for them to manufacture it any longer. 

By late 2006, Simply Junket was formed to continue the tradition of junket - we heard the cries of the junket loving public and could not ignore them!