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Lincolnshire Frumenty
Stir 1 quart of wheat mush over the fire with 2 quarts of milk, until thick and smooth, add 1/4 pound of mixed raisins and currants, then, when tender, still stirring, the yolks of 6 eggs beaten, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Serve cold, in bowls or cups.
A cooked wheat porridge enriched with egg yolks and dried fruit, served cold. The one thing to watch is the yolks: once they go in, the pan must stay below a simmer or the frumenty curdles into sweet scrambled egg.
- What "wheat mush" meansNot raw grain. Traditionally it is creed wheat — whole or cracked wheat soaked and then simmered very slowly for hours until the grains burst and set to a thick jelly. About 1 cup of pearled or cracked wheat, simmered in water until soft and gluey, gives roughly the quart of mush called for.
- Quarts and pounds1 quart is 4 cups, 2 quarts of milk is 8 cups, and 1/4 pound of dried fruit is about 3/4 cup. The finished quantity is large: this serves eight to ten in cups or small bowls.
- The milk stageWheat mush plus milk wants long, patient stirring over low heat. It thickens slowly, largely by absorption, so it takes longer than a custard and will catch on the bottom if the heat is anywhere near high.
- Adding the yolksBeat the six yolks, slacken them with a ladleful of the hot mixture, then stir that back into the pan off the heat or over the barest flame. Take it to about 175F and no further. Boiling after the yolks go in will break the mixture.
- Sugar and spice are unmeasuredThe original gives no quantities. Start with about 1/2 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg for this volume, and taste while it is still warm — chilling mutes sweetness.
- Currants, not red currantsCurrants here are dried Zante currants, sold with the raisins, not the fresh berry. Plumping them in a little warm milk or water first keeps them from drawing moisture out of the finished dish.
- Serving coldIt sets noticeably as it cools, closer to a thick rice pudding than a pourable custard. Cover the surface with film to stop a skin forming, chill thoroughly, and loosen with a splash of milk before spooning into cups.
Frumenty takes its name from the Latin frumentum, grain, and is one of the oldest dishes in the English repertoire — hulled wheat simmered in milk or broth, recorded in medieval kitchens as an accompaniment to venison and later as festival food. In the eastern counties, and Lincolnshire in particular, it survived into the nineteenth century as a Christmas and Mothering Sunday dish; the wheat was often "creed" overnight in the cooling brick oven of a village baker. The version here, with egg yolks, dried fruit and warm spices, is the enriched form rather than the plain porridge.