18^th Century: Almond Flummery

The original flummery was made by steeping oats or bran in water overnight and then straining the liquid to use. In the eighteenth century blancmange became known as flummery and it became more common to make it using a combination of sweet almonds – which are regular almonds – and bitter almonds, which come from a different type of almond tree and contain the poisonous substance cyanide. To prevent poisoning, the skins of the bitter almonds had to be completely removed. Because bitter almo