Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
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Wikipedia
A posset is a hot milk drink, popular in the Middle Ages for its supposed medicinal properties. Wine or ale was added to the milk, which curdled it, and the mixture was usually spiced. It was considered a specific remedy for some minor illnesses, such as a cold, and a general remedy for others, as even today people drink hot milk to help them get to sleep. A caudle was a later development that added a thickening agent—usually some kind of grain (a cereal or "gruel") but sometimes eggs—that also increased its nutritional value. Eggnog belongs to the same family of milk punches.
Possets are generally made lemon, or other citrus, juice; cream and sugar. Eggs are often added, as well.
The preparation of posset could be elaborate, and the word "posset" became a verb, meaning to coddle or pamper someone by taking trouble to make them comfortable. Some scholars trace the verb "coddle" to "caudle", but others assign them different derivations.
"Posset sets" for mixing and serving possets were popular gifts, and valuable ones (often made of silver) were heirlooms. Such sets contained a posset "pot", or "bowl", or "cup" to serve it in, a container for mixing it in, and usually various containers for the ingredients, as well as spoons. The posset set that the Spanish ambassador gave Queen Mary I of England and King Philip II of Spain when they became betrothed in 1554 is believed to have been made by Benvenuto Cellini and is of crystal, gold, precious gems, and enamel. It is on display at Hatfield House in England and consists of a large, stemmed, covered bowl, two open, stemmed vessels, a covered container, three spoons, and two forks.
[edit] References
- ^ Posset Pot. Metalwork. Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved on 2007-12-09.
[edit] See also
Annotations
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posset
A spiced drink of hot sweetened milk curdled with wine or ale.ETYMOLOGY: Middle English poshet, possot : perhaps Old French *posce (Latin posca, drink of vinegar and water, from potare, to drink; see potable + Latin esca, food, from edere, to eat; see edible) + Middle English hot, hot; see hot.
http://www.bartleby.com/61/55/P0465500.html
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”..What posies for our wedding rings;
What gloves we’ll give, and ribbonings;
And smiling at our selves, decree
Who then the joining priest shall be;
What short sweet prayers shall be said,
And how the posset shall be made
With cream of lilies, not of kine,
And maiden’s-blush for spiced wine.
Thus having talk’d, we’ll next commend
A kiss to each, and so we’ll end…”
http://www.emule.com/poetry/?page=poem&poem=3014Both pancake and fritter of milk have good store,
But a Devonshire white-pot must needs have much more;
Of no brew … you can think,
Though you study and wink,
From the lusty sack posset to poor posset drink,
But milk’s the ingredient, though wine’s … ne’er the worse,
For ‘tis wine makes the man, though ‘tis milk makes the nurse.
…..No doubt the original word in these places was SACK, as in Chappell’s copy - but what would a peasant understand by SACK?
Dryden’s receipt for a sack posset is as follows:-
‘From fair Barbadoes, on the western main,
Fetch sugar half-a-pound: fetch sack, from Spain,
A pint: then fetch, from India’s fertile coast,
Nutmeg, the glory of the British toast.’
http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/poetry/AncientPoemsBallads/chap88.htmlMISCELLANY POEM, V. 138.
Next (Poem 68) …
“quod posset zonam soluere uirgineam. ..
that could untie her girdle of virginity. “
http://www.vroma.org/~hwalker/VRomaCatullus/068b.html
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Posset recipes
A couple of posset recipes and some historical detail are at this website,
along with a portrait of Sir Kenelm Digby: -
Posset…(Brewers)
Properly means a drink taken before going to bed; it was milk curdled with wine.
“In his morning draught…his concerves or cates…and when he goeth to bedde his posset smoking hot.”
Man in the Moone (1609) -
As a child in the ’50s, I was given a posset if ill and unable to take solid food: it was milk, with an egg beaten up in it, sugar and sherry. Wonderful comfort food. It is used as such in the children’s classic book, The Box of Delights.
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another Posset:To make a posset
PERIOD: England, 17th century | SOURCE: The Art of Cookery Refined and Augmented, 1654 | CLASS: Authentic
DESCRIPTION: A posset, a cream & wine custard
from:a interesting sauce. http://www.godecookery.com/engrec/engrec53.html
To make a posset.
Take a quart of new Cream, a quarter of an ounce of Cynamon, Nutmeg quartered, and boyl it till it taste of the spice, and keep it alwayes stirring, or it will burn to; then take the yolks of 7 Eggs beaten well together with a little cold Creame; then put that into the other Creame that is on the fire, and stir it till it begin to boyle; then take it off and sweeten it with Sugar, and stir on till it be indifferent coole; then take somewhat more than a quarter of a pinte of Sack (half a pinte will be too much) sweeten that also, and set it on the fire till it be ready to boyle; then put it in a convenient vessel, and pour your Creame into it, elevating your hand to make it froath, which is the grace of your Posset; and if you put it thorow a tunnell, it is held the more exquisite way. -
Michael Quinion knows his possets, caudles, and cordials: