Syllabub
{{short description|Acid-curdled milk or cream used as a drink or dessert topping}}
{{redirect|Sillabub|the Cats character sometimes known by this name|Jemima (cat)}}
{{Infobox food
| name = Syllabub
| image = Regency Syllabub.jpg
| image_size =
| caption =
| place_of_origin = Britain
| region =
| creator =
| course = Dessert or dessert topping
| type = Pudding or beverage
| served =
| main_ingredient = Milk or cream, sugar, wine
| variations =
| calories =
| other =
}}
File:England, 18th century - Syllabub Glass - 1936.433 - Cleveland Museum of Art.tif
Syllabub is a sweet dish made by curdling sweet cream or milk with an acid such as wine or cider. It was a popular British confection from the 16th to the 19th centuries.{{cite book |first=Alan |last=Davidson |title=The Oxford Companion to Food |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bIIeBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA800 |date=2014 |orig-date=1999 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-104072-6 |page=800}}
Early recipes for syllabub are for a drink of cider with milk. By the 17th century it had evolved into a type of dessert made with sweet white wine. More wine could be added to make a punch, but it could also be made to have a thicker consistency that could be eaten with a spoon, used as a topping for trifle, or to dip fingers of sponge cake into.{{cite book |last=Hussain |first=Nadiya |title=Spiced biscotti with an orange syllabub dip |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/spiced_biscotti_with_an_57953}} The holiday punch, sweet and frothy, was often considered a ladies' drink. The milk and cream used in those days would have been thicker and modern recipes may need to make some adjustments to achieve the same effect.{{cite book |last=Lehman |first=Eric D. |title=A History of Connecticut Food: A Proud Tradition of Puddings, Clambakes & Steamed Cheeseburgers |date=2012 |publisher=Arcadia |isbn=978-1-62584-079-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DLJ2CQAAQBAJ&pg=PT132}}
History
Syllabub (or solybubbe, sullabub, sullibib, sullybub, sullibub; there is no certain etymology and considerable variation in spelling){{Cite web |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/syllabub |title=Definition of syllabub |website=www.merriam-webster.com}}{{Cite web |url=https://britishfoodhistory.com/2013/01/03/syllabubs/ |title=Syllabubs |date=January 3, 2013}} has been known in England at least since Nicholas Udall's Thersytes of 1537: "You and I... Muste walke to him and eate a solybubbe."Udall, Nicholas, (October 1537 [first performance]; 1550 [first printing]) A new Enterlude called Thersytes; reprinted in: Axton, Marie [ed.], (1982) "Thersites" in Three Tudor Classical Interludes: Thersites, Jacke Jugeler, Horestes, 240 Hills Road, Cambridge: D. S. Brewer--Rowman & Littlefield, line 656, page 56, ISBN 0859910962. The word occurs repeatedly, including in Samuel Pepys's diary for 12 July 1663; "Then to Comissioner Petts and had a good Sullybub"Pepys, Samuel Diary of Samuel Pepys, 12 July 1663 and in Thomas Hughes's Tom Brown at Oxford of 1861; "We retire to tea or syllabub beneath the shade of some great oak."Hughes, Thomas (1861) Tom Brown at Oxford, cited in {{Cite OED|syllabub}}
Hannah Glasse, in the 18th century, published the recipe for whipt syllabubs in The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy. The recipe's ingredients were:
a quart of thick cream, and half a pint of sack, the juice of two Seville oranges or lemons, grate in the peel of two lemons, half a pound of double refined sugar.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xJdAAAAAIAAJ&q=syllabub |title=The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy: Which Far Exceeds Any Thing of the Kind Yet Published ... |last=Glasse |first=Hannah |date=1774 |publisher=W. Strahan, J. and F. Rivington, J. Hinton | page = 284 | language=en}}
These were whipped together and poured into glasses. The curdled cream separated and floated to the top.
See also
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.foodsofengland.co.uk/syllabuboldtype.htm 'Syllabub' at Foods of England]
- {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20120402211355/http://piereligion.org/maydaysongs.html#syllabub Syllabub recipe with wine]}}
{{English cuisine}}