Syllabub #1

10 Servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
1½ Lemons
2½ cup Whipping cream; very cold
2 cups Powdered sugar (1/2 lb)
1 cup Rhine wine
½ cup Dry sherry

Directions

The recipe for this dish appeared in Virginia in 1742, but it obviously goes back to England. It is called syllabub, I suppose, because it divides itself into a couple of layers. Syllables are parts of a word. So it is with this dessert. Since the wine acts to preserve the cream a bit, the dish was often made up to 3 days before a party, and it would stand well. I suggest that you make it the day before serving and store it overnight in the refrigerator. It will separate and provide a great deal of conversation at the table, as well as a great dessert.

Grate the rind from the lemons and set aside. Squeeze the juice from the lemons and set aside.

Be sure that the cream is cold. I even chill my electric mixing bowl.

Begin whipping the cream on your machine and then add the sugar and lemon rind. While it whips, blend the wine and sherry together with the lemon juice. Add the wine and lemon juice, along with the lemon rind, to the cream. Gradually add the sugar and whip until the mixture is very thick, about 15 minutes on a machine such as a KitchenAid. It will not be quite as thick as regular whipped cream, but it will thicken if the cream is cold.

(In the old days it thickened because the cream was high in butterfat.

Cream in our time has a much lower butterfat content and therefore must be very cold to whip.)

Spoon into wineglasses. It will separate and provide a wonderful dessert.

Store in the refrigerator until serving.

From <The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American>. Downloaded from Glen's MM Recipe Archive, .

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