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172
THE FLOWING BOWL
Dr. Johnson describes posset as milk curdled
with wine and other acids ; we may therefore
infer that the preparation of sherry and curd
which we call
White Whie Whey
is the Milk Posset of our ancestors.
Put one pint of milk into a saucepan, and when
it boils pour in a gill of sherry ; boil it till the curd
becomes hard, then strain it through a fine sieve.
Rub a few lumps of sugar on the rind of a lemon
and put them into the whey ; grate a small quantity
of nutmeg into it, and sweeten to taste.
Pepper Posset.
The better to promote perspiration, whole
peppercorns are sometimes boiled in the whey.
A Pepper Posset was known to the learned and
ingenious John Dryden, as will appear from the
following lines written by him :—
A sparing diet did her health assure ;
Or sick, a pepper posset was her cure.
Cider Posset.
Pound the peel of a lemon in a mortar, and pour
on it one quart of fresh-drawn cider; sweeten with
lump-sugar, add one gill of brandy and one quart of
new milk. Stir the mixture well, strain it through
a hair sieve, grate a little nutmeg over it, and it is
fit for use.
In a former chapter a recipe for