Today the syllabub is?rather an unfamiliar dessert but?from the 17th and early 20th centuries it was a pudding staple. It has gone through some minor changes along its way but its essence has remained the same. Originally milk was sweetened and mixed with cider sack ? a sweet fortified beer not unlike sherry ? and left to curdle and treated as a drink served hot or cold. At the same time at more solid version was being made with cream and wine and spirits. More recently less alcohol and more cream was used producing a dessert that could stand in a cool place that would remain delicious, soft and fully whipped ? this was known as an ?everlasting syllabub?.
Detail of The Sense of Taste?by Philip Mercier (1680-1760) showing a salver of syllabubs
The word syllabub comes from the name Sille, an area in the Champagne region of France that made the eponymously named wine, and the word bub, an Elizabethan slang word meaning a bubbling drink, hence Sille bub?? wine mixed with a frothy cream. In fact it was a case of the frothier the better, and the best way to achieve this is to spray milk straight from the udder (which has a natural froth) into the wine, this kind of syllabub was also called ?Hatted Kit? and a recipe appears for it in Elizabeth Raffald?s 1769 book The Experienced English Housewife:
?To make a Syllabub under the cow
Put a bottle of strong beer and a pint of cider into a punch bowl, grate in a small nutmeg and sweeten it to your taste. Then milk as much milk from the cow as will make a strong froth and the ale look clear. Let it stand an hour, then strew over it a few currants well washed, picked, and plumped before the fire. Then send it to the table.?
?Elizabeth Raffald
Charles II found this sort of syllabub so delicious that he kept cows at the palace in case he got a hankering for some Hatted Kit ? he would walk up to one and squirt some milk into his flagon of wine, sack or cider.
If you are a tee-totaller, don?t worry because Sir Kenholm?Digby, writing in 1669, gives recipes for syllabubs flavoured with plum juice, cherry syrups and Seville orange.
By the 19th?century, the syllabub was generally made from whipping cream together with sweetened wine. The wine was flavoured with lemon and fortified with a little brandy, and it is a recipe for one of these everlasting syllabubs that I give below. It comes from Elizabeth David?s 1969 pamphlet Syllabubs and Fruit Fools (which can be found in her book An Omelette and a Glass of Wine).
Elizabeth David?s Everlasting Syllabub with Almond Biscuits
The ingredients of a syllabub, we find, are simple and sumptuous. The skill demanded for its confection is minimal, the presentation is basic and elegant.
Elizabeth David
These syllabubs were the original topping to trifles before plain whipped cream took over. They are often served with jellies or with sweet biscuits so I?ve given a recipe for some simple crisp almond biscuits too.
The most important ingredient here is the wine; you can use any sweet or dessert wine, by personal favourite being a nice Muscat. I managed to get hold of an excellent and very reasonably-priced organic free-trade one from Case Solved Wines in Manchester.
This recipe makes between 4 and 6 servings
Ingredients for the syllabub
8 tbs sweet or dessert wine
2 tbs brandy
pared rind of one lemon
60g (2 oz) sugar
300ml (? pint) double cream
freshly grated nutmeg
The day before you want to serve the syllabub, mix the wine and brandy in a bowl, add the lemon peel and steep overnight.
Next day, strain the wine into a large bowl and stir in the sugar until dissolved. Pour in the cream and whisk until thick. Be careful not to over-whip the cream. Spoon into glasses and scatter a few raspings of nutmeg over them.
For the biscuits:
100g?(4oz) butter
50g?(2oz) caster sugar
150g (6 oz) plain flour
50g (2 oz) ground almonds
Cream the butter and sugar together and then mix in the flour, and finally the almonds. Bring the mixture together with your hand to form a dough ? it?ll be very ?short?, i.e. crumbly, but it will come together ? don?t be tempted to add any water or milk because it will result in a biscuit that is not crisp, and you don?t want that. Roll out the mixture to the thickness of a pound coin (about 3mm) and cut into rounds.
Bake for 8-10 minutes at 200?C (400?F) until tinged with golden brown. Cool on a wire rack and store in an airtight tub.
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Source: http://britishfoodhistory.wordpress.com/2013/01/03/syllabubs/
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