7 replies to this topic

[Jakea222]

Saw this (syllabub) in a Williamsburg Cookbook - anyone done it - did it work and was it any good!

Edited by Jakea222, 01 September 2008 - 09:20 PM.

[RAHiggins1]

Saw this (syllabub) in a Williamsburg Cookbook - anyone done it - did it work and was it any good!

Is that mixing fresh drawn milk with beer or mixxing ginger ale and a light beer? It sounds familiar. I remember Louis P. Degouy's "Gold Cookbook" having had something like that in it.


* I was close

I'd say the milking the cow into the bowl part could be hard to pull off in a modern kitchen without much fanfaire.......

Edited by RAHiggins1, 02 September 2008 - 08:11 AM.

[FlyingRat]

If you're talking about the "Shields Tavern Syllabub" from the Colonial Williamsburg Tavern Cookbook, I've made it-- yes, it works, and yes, it's good...VERY good (one of my favorite desserts, as a matter of fact).

The ingredients for this one include dry white wine, dry sherry, lemon peel and juice, sugar, whipped cream, and berries/mint leaves for garnish. It's poured into wineglasses (or, ideally, shrub glasses) and left to separate overnight.

[Jakea222]

If you're talking about the "Shields Tavern Syllabub" from the Colonial Williamsburg Tavern Cookbook, I've made it-- yes, it works, and yes, it's good...VERY good (one of my favorite desserts, as a matter of fact).

The ingredients for this one include dry white wine, dry sherry, lemon peel and juice, sugar, whipped cream, and berries/mint leaves for garnish.  It's poured into wineglasses (or, ideally, shrub glasses) and left to separate overnight.

Thanks I am going to try this for the next chefs table dinner

[racheld]

Ahhhh, Syllabub. Always capital S. I first encountered the word and the romance of it in a foray into my parents' BOMC shelves, in a Heat-of-the-South bodice-ripper titled A Woman Called Fancy. She crossed the tracks, the river---whatever the Great Divide between her trashy family and the Big House housing the handsome, dashing Heir, and life was all syllabub and parties.

The one Grand Ball, with the heat palpable on the page, the blue satin of her evening dress, the magnificent dinner, the cold collation during dancing, the midnight supper, the sweat on the cooks' brows as they whipped that stand-a-spoon-in cream, mixed in the sherry and the Madiera and served it in the crystal glasses with "small spoons"---that was entirely enough romance for my nine-or-so-year-old-self. It was a ladies' confection, and left to the fairer sex to enjoy whilst the males rode herd on all those bottles of whiskey and port.

I haven't made it in YEARS, but I have the slender clear glasses and the small spoons. And small spoons they need be---three bites of this stuff, and you feel as if you've eaten the whole bag of marshmallows.

[nickrey]

Syllabub is rich milk (heavy cream content) curdled in bubbling wine (something like champagne would be appropriate and a perfect match for the slender glasses and small spoons mentioned by racheld).

Add some lemon to give a sour flavor, sugar for the sweet and nutmeg as an exotic spice (this was the 17th to 18th century after all) and you'd certainly have some bodice ripping or at least Bronte like sexual tension.

[Jakea222]

glad I asked - this has been a good thread so far

[Irenesh]

I gather from the replies here that the amount of each ingredient is not critical. I highly recommend the Wikipedia article on Syllabub. For anyone that has access to old cookbooks, there is a nice list of references as well.