1903 The Flowing Bowl by Edward Spencer

172 THE FLOWING BOWL Dr. Johnson describes posset as milk curdled with wine and other acids ; we may therefore infer that the preparation of sherry and curd which we call White Whie Whey is the Milk Posset of our ancestors. Put one pint of milk into a saucepan, and when it boils pour in a gill of sherry ; boil it till the curd becomes hard, then strain it through a fine sieve. Rub a few lumps of sugar on the rind of a lemon and put them into the whey ; grate a small quantity of nutmeg into it, and sweeten to taste. Pepper Posset. The better to promote perspiration, whole peppercorns are sometimes boiled in the whey. A Pepper Posset was known to the learned and ingenious John Dryden, as will appear from the following lines written by him :— Cider Posset. Pound the peel of a lemon in a mortar, and pour on it one quart of fresh-drawn cider; sweeten with lump-sugar, add one gill of brandy and one quart of new milk. Stir the mixture well, strain it through a hair sieve, grate a little nutmeg over it, and it is fit for use. In a former chapter a recipe for A sparing diet did her health assure ; Or sick, a pepper posset was her cure.