An Everlasting Syllabub

Then the everlasting syllabub became popular: by adding less alcohol to the cream it made a more solid version that would not separate and could be made in advance. It would become the topping of a trifle after Hannah Glasse published her recipe (in The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy, 1747); and Eliza Smith claimed in her book of the same period (The Compleat Housewife, 1727) that her syllabub would ‘keep good for nine or ten days’. I wouldn’t recommend you try this at home.

In the early nineteenth century possets and syllabubs start to disappear from recipe books. It would not be until the 1970s that these dishes would get attention again, when Elizabeth David and Jane Grigson wrote about them. Even then it would take a while before the general public was aware of them again. Elizabeth David wrote a booklet devoted to syllabubs and fruit fools: in it she goes into great detail about the history of these puddings, shares several historical recipes and also one of her own. She sold it in her cookery shop in London.