Syllabub
Place half a pint of port and six heaping table-spoons of white sugar in a bowl; in another vessel put one quart of sweet milk or cream, lukewarm; when sugar dissolves, pour in milk, holding it high, grate nutmeg over it. - Mrs. M. E. Porter, Prince George Court House, Va.
A pouring syllabub, which is to say a drink rather than the stiff whipped dessert of the same name. Everything depends on aeration and speed.
- The hinge: pour from a heightHolding the milk high is not decorative. The fall aerates the liquid and drives the froth, so raise the pitcher a good two feet above the bowl and pour in a thin steady stream. Poured gently, you get sweet pink milk and no foam.
- Serve at onceThe wine's acid begins curdling the milk within minutes and the froth collapses soon after. Fill glasses immediately; a syllabub left standing separates into a clear whey below and a scum above.
- MeasuresHalf a pint of port is one cup. A quart of milk is four cups. Six heaping tablespoons of sugar is somewhere between a half and two-thirds of a cup depending on how high you heap them, which is sweet by modern taste.
- "Sweet milk"Nineteenth-century shorthand for fresh unsoured milk, as opposed to buttermilk or clabber. Whole milk works; light cream gives a thicker, more persistent head and is the better choice.
- LukewarmBody temperature, around 100F, imitating milk straight from the cow. Warm it gently and use it at once rather than letting it sit at that temperature.
- The portA ruby port suits this better than a tawny or a vintage. Sherry, madeira and dry white wine all appear in period syllabub recipes, and any of them will curdle the milk.
- YieldAbout five cups of liquid plus foam — fills eight or so small punch cups or glasses. Grate the nutmeg over the filled bowl just before serving so the aroma is still there.
Syllabub is English and considerably older than this book, appearing in recipe collections from the sixteenth century onward; the name's origins are obscure, though it is often said to combine "sill" or "sille" for a wine and "bub" for a frothing drink. One traditional form, attested in later printed recipes, was made by milking a cow directly into a bowl of sweetened wine, the force and warmth of the stream doing the frothing he milk high and use it lukewarm, which is a townhouse imitation of the same effect. By the time The Dixie Cook Book was compiled in the 1880s, the whipped, spoonable syllabub had largely taken over in fashionable cookery, but the thin drinking version survived in Southern household books, usually with port or sherry standing in for the older sack. Mrs. Porter's contribution, from Prince George Court House in tidewater Virginia, is about as plain a version as the tradition allows: wine, sugar, milk, nutmeg, and a practiced arm.