Ping Kate

Basically, a lemon syllabub is thick whipped cream with a little lemon juice, sugar, and wine.

Everlasting Syllabub

1/4 pint sweet white wine, such as Sauterne 1 tablespoon medium sweet sherry 2 tablespoons brandy 1 lemon 2 oz caster sugar 1/2 point double cream (needs to be thick natural cream - no thickening or stabilisers or anything!)

Put the wine, sherry and brandy into a large bowl, along with shaved pieces of lemon rind (about half the rind of the lemon - keep the rest for later!), along with the lemon juice. Leave it to steep over night...

Boil the remaining lemon rind in a little water, and leave to cool. Cut it into shreds to decorate the syllabub.

Sir the sugar into the wine until it all dissolves. Ad the cream, and whip it with a hand whisk until it forms soft peaks. Spoon into 6 wine glasses and leave to chill for a couple of hours. Decorate with the slivers of lemon peel just before serving.

It will keep for 2-3 days in the fridge.

Syllabub began in Elizabethan times as a frothy drink made by milking a cow directly into a glass of wine, ale or cider. The recipe above was very popular in the mid 18th C. I've made it, and it's lovely! :D

Kate, thanks a bunch! I was certain you would be able to provide it. DD is going to a neighborhood picnic soon, and thought she would like to try something different. Another guest at the tavern and I both ordered it, and we were both rhapsodizing about how wonderful it was. I've never had anything else quite like it. I did find an entertaining website about the 'original method of making syllabub':

"...As to the author of the document, I can give no manner of satisfaction; however, I am credibly informed of its authenticity, and that it accurately presents an eyewitness account of the original method of making syllabub. Let us begin in the beginning, then, with this document. ..." Read on, it's very funny!

Thanks again for the recipe, I may spring it on the family instead of "sipping cream" during the holidays.

Beverly

Here's a variation on the theme

Juno

Thanks, that is very much the way it was presented at the King's Arms. I removed the mint, and lemon slice, I had forgotten that. I'm pretty sure it did not have any nutmeg in or on it though.

Beverly

Dear Beverly, If your like me you'll play with several variations until you find the one you like. I looked through my Williamsburg cookbook and Virginia cook book and couldn't find anything. I found this one when I Googled syllabub recipe and got more than 45,000 hits. Try that way and see what else is out there. Juno

FWIW here is the recipe I use

Lemon Syllabub

1 Lemon 2 glasses Madeira (or golden sherry) 1 wineglass sweet white wine 2-3 oz caster sugar 3/4 UK pint of double cream // 15 fl oz US heavy cream 1 egg white

Remove rind from lemon and soak overnight in Madeira and white wine

next day:

Squeeze juice from lemon and strain on to sugar, add the wines removing the rind, stir until sugar is dissolved.

Whisk egg white until stiff - reserve until needed.

Whip cream until thick, add wine mixture gradually and whip until cream holds shape. Fold in stiffly whisked egg white. Serve in sorbet glasses.

Notes:

Whisking the egg white first saves having to get those beaters perfectly clean again.

A UK pint is 20 fl oz, not 16, and our fluid ounces are not quite the same as those in the US! Our pint is 568 millilitres or cubic centimetres.

Lizzy

thanks, had googled before I pinged Kate, but the recipes all looked like some sort of punch, with the foam floated on the top. I have two contenders at the moment, I'll give each a try.

Beverly

Lizzy Taylor wrote: > hits. Try that way and see what else is out there. Juno

Interesting, trying to convert UK to US measurements will be something of a challenge. And who knows if I have the right size of "glass" or "wineglass" to measure the Madeira and white wine? ;-}

Guess I'll just have to make several batches until I get it right, yeah that's it, I'm experimenting....

Beverly

All cookery is a form of benevolent witchcraft! You experiment away! :D

That's pretty much what it was originally, so a variation on a theme. :)

Oh! I haven't seen one with egg white in it before... Where did this recipe come from? Does the egg make it lighter?

It's like all good recipes: everyone has their own one, all slightly different! And probably all equally good... Beverly has a lot of experimenting to do! ;) hic!

I use a sherry glass for the madeira and a small wine glass for the wine. This is from a '70s recipe book and IIRC a wineglass would have been about 125ml or 4floz.

and why not???

Lizzy

It's from a Cordon Bleu magazine from the '70s. I think the egg white helps it hold together a bit better. I don't know if it makes it lighter - I've never compared, now I shall have to do so ;)

Lizzy

What better way to experiment! Yum Yum Juno

It's a good giggle, innit! :D :D :D

Here are some variations from my 18th C cookbook:

Hannah Glasse's recipe:

90ml/6 tablespoons sherry, wine, cider, lemon or orange whey (I'll find the recipe for that if you want it), all sweetened or unsweetened Juice and grated rind of a lemon 60ml/4 tablespoons white wine or sherry (if not used above) 59g/2 oz caster sugar 275ml/10 fl oz double cream

Put one table spoon of the liquor or whey into each of six conical wine glasses. In a deep bowl, mix the lemon rind, juice, sherry or wine and sugar. Now, whisking all the time, with a hand whisk only, slowly add the cream. Keep whisking until; soft peaks form. Do not over beat. Just before serving spoon it into the glasses, layering the cream mixture carefully on top of the liquor.

John Nott uses white wine for the liquor in his glasses, plus the juice of mulberries, raspberries, or black cherries! Hm... Think of the mess you could get in squishing cherries! :D

I have a wonderful little paperback cookbook for Indian cookery, sent to me by a friend when she lived in India 35 years ago. The measurements include "dessertspoon" "teacup" and a few others, I think. They also call for sultanas and aubergines, which drove me to the dictionary.

I have always had a problem following recipes. All that measuring!!! I do make a decent spagetti sauce, but couldn't tell you how to do it -- I look around the kitchen, then throw in this and that until the pot has enough in it, it looks right, it smells right, and it tastes right. It doesn't always taste the same, either. ;-)

If you post after each experiment, your comments will probably be interesting - but there are times when I wish we had sound as well as written words - Beverly poshting about a bit o' thish, and a bit o'that, until she getsh the recipe jusht right.

Why thank ye' Miss Kate, I'll stagger right on down to the wine cellar and get started. [-|

Beverly