You can tell the holiday season is upon us, just by the
amount of Christmas commercials on television, as well as the re-runs of old
Christmas shows. This week, I watched an interesting show on the History
Channel about where our holiday traditions came from, and it got me thinking
about traditional holiday drinks. Last year, I did a blog about mulled wine,
and the previous year, I did one about the origins of eggnog. So this year, I
went into the archives, and did some digging. Are you familiar with Sack
Posset?
“Sack what?” you say? Sack Posset was a popular,
custard-like drink of Elizabethan England. That may be the nice way of putting
it. Since many in the population of that time, were of lesser means, Sack
Posset was more of a curdled milk and wine/beer concoction. It went out of
style about 200 years ago, but a newer recipe I was able to find, may
revive this once popular drink.
First, where did the name come from? “Sack” is a common old English
term used to refer to a fortified wine. It may have come from the Latin,
‘siccus’ meaning dry or harsh. But, not all fortified wines are dry and harsh. You
may be familiar with Dry Sack Sherry (which can be harsh). This is a dry,
fortified wine from the Sherry (Jerez) region of Spain. Since “sack” can refer
to any fortified wine, we can assume Sherry, Madiera, or even Port could be
used as an ingredient. The word, “posset” used to refer to a small pot or
saucepan. Today, a posset is a type of small pot. They have large bodies, lids
and usually, two handles. There is a spout at the front that was not used for
pouring, but for actually sucking out the liquor. The remaining curds were
eaten with a spoon.
Sack Posset was made from various recipes. Originally, it appears
to have been for medicinal use. But by the 17th Century, it became
more popular as an actual beverage. Also, remember that hygiene, pasteurization,
etc, were not known at this time, so alcohol was the way to kill germs. Sack Posset
typically featured spiced, warm wine mixed with milk, or cream. The milk would
curdle and float to the top. So you would drink the wine from the bottom, then
eat the sweet curds that floated to the top.
A properly made posset was said to have “three different
layers. The uppermost, known as 'the grace' was a snowy foam or aereated crust.
In the middle was a smooth spicy custard and at the bottom a pungent alcoholic
liquid. The grace and the custard were enthusiastically consumed as 'spoonmeat'
and the sack-rich liquid below drunk through the 'pipe' or spout of the posset
pot.”
The first published recipe is from Sir Kenelm Digby (London:
1671):
Take a pottle of
Cream, and boil in it a little whole Cinnamon, and three or four flakes of
Mace. To this proportion of Cream put in eighteen yolks of eggs, and eight of
the whites; a pint of Sack; beat your eggs very well, and then mingle them with
your Sack. Put in three quarters of a pound of Sugar into the Wine and Eggs,
with a Nutmeg grated, and a little beaten Cinnamon; set the Bason on the fire
with the Wine and Eggs, and let it be hot. Then put in the Cream boiling from
the fire, pour it on high, but stir it not; cover it with a dish, and when it
is settlede, strew on the top a little fine Sugar mingled with three grains of
Ambergreece, and one grain of Musk, and serve it up.
I was able to find an updated/current recipe for Sack
Posset, that was published by Reader’s Digest (Australia), it is written as
follows:
Ingredients
6 egg yolks
3 egg whites
1 cup fino sherry
1⁄4 teaspoon each ground cinnamon and mace
1⁄4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
2⁄3 cup caster sugar
4 cup pouring cream
grated nutmeg for sprinkling
Preparation
Put the egg yolks, egg whites, sherry and spices into a
large mixing bowl and whisk until they are well blended. Place the bowl over a
saucepan of gently boiling water and stir until warm. Take care not to let the
egg mixture overheat or it will scramble.
Reserving 1 teaspoon of the caster sugar, heat the remainder
with the cream in a saucepan until it rises to the boil. Pour the cream mixture
immediately, in a steady stream from a height, onto the egg mixture, whisking
as you pour to make it frothy.
Leave the posset to stand in a warm place for 5 minutes,
then sprinkle the reserved sugar and a little nutmeg over the surface and serve
in heatproof glasses. This drink goes well with mince pies and, because it is
rich, one glass per person should be sufficient.
So, try something different this holiday. Make some mulled
wine, or homemade eggnog….or if you are really adventurous, make some Sack
Posset, and share the history with your friends.
Hi there, the alcohol in posset was used to open blood vessels and provoke sweating because these were often cold cures. It had nothing to do with 'germs' because they had not even been 'invented' at the time these recipes were popular. The useful bacteria in the raw milk would also have aided to the cure, as gut flora balance is important in all forms of illness. Posset was still a part of invalid cookery in the 1920's I have a recipe for two varieties of them in my 1928 edition of Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management. The posset was the close cousin of the syllabub, itself a drink in its earliest manifestations. Later recipes had eating-possets and these, I believe are the forerunners of that great celebration dish, the Sherry Trifle. I make it from raw milk too! All the best from the land of dairy, Normandie, Sue
ReplyDeleteAww!!!! it's that time of year again. Today is only August 03, 2016, but I am getting an early start on fall foods and drinks. I have been making, drinking, serving and enjoying Sack Posset since the fall of 1990. I came across the recipe in a 1990 Christmas cookbook I received. I must say~I do like this recipe far better. Thank you so much for the recipe and sharing the history behind this festive Holiday drink. I feel like I'm in the 17th Century when drinking it.
ReplyDeleteseems like early sherry trifle
ReplyDelete