JUNKET

junket, a dish of milk curdled by rennet, served with clotted cream and flavoured with nutmeg, which is particularly associated in england with devonshire and cornwall. the word is of somewhat obscure history. it appears to come through o. fr. _jonquette_, a rush-basket, from lat. _juncus_, rush. in norman dialect this word is used of a cream cheese. the commonly accepted origin is that it refers to the rush-basket on which such cream cheeses or curds were served. _juncade_ appears in rabelais, and is explained by cotgrave as "spoon-meat, rose-water and sugar." nicholas udall (in his translation of erasmus's _apophthegms_, 1542) speaks of "marchepaines or wafers with other like junkerie." the word "junket" is also used for a festivity or picnic.