Weekend Cooking: Wheaten Flummery

[snowynight]

WHEATEN FLOMMERY

In the West-country, they make a kind of Flomery of wheat flower, which they judge to be more harty and pleasant then that of Oat-meal, Thus; Take half, or a quarter of a bushel of good Bran of the best wheat (which containeth the purest flower of it, though little, and is used to make starch,) and in a great woodden bowl or pail, let it soak with cold water upon it three or four days. Then strain out the milky water from it, and boil it up to a gelly or like starch. Which you may season with Sugar and Rose or Orange-flower-water, and let it stand till it be cold, and gellied. Then eat it with white or Rhenish-wine, or Cream, or Milk, or Ale.


From 'The Closet Of Sir Kenelm Digby Knight", Opened by Kenelm Digby (1669)

*Flummery is a starch-based, sweet, soft dessert pudding known to have been popular in Britain and Ireland from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries.

Comments

[lilacsigil]

Flummery was definitely a dessert we had in my 1980s childhood! It was jelly crystals made up with water, then blended with evaporated milk so it was fluffy and creamy, then it set in the fridge.

[snowynight]

How do you like it?

It's always interesting to see how recipes evolve/reinvent and adapt. Jelly crystals is much easier to handle than oat/wheat flour.

[lilacsigil]

I loved it as a kid because I rarely got to eat anything sweet! I think now it would be kind of bland and overly smooth, though.

[snowynight]

Thanks! I wonder if there are other varieties.