Alcohol-Free Whipt Syllabub over Lemon Whey
Reader ratingsCream whisked with orange and lemon juice, grated lemon peel and fine sugar, spooned over sweetened lemon whey, which Hannah Glasse offered in 1747 in place of the wine.
- Recipe makes
- About 900 ml, 8 small glasses
- Prep
- Cook
- Total
Make the whey first and let it cool for 10 minutes; whisk the cream no more than an hour or two before serving.
Alcohol-free whipt syllabubs over lemon whey, one tinted with saffron, with oranges and a lemon.
The story behind the recipe
Hannah Glasse offered an alcohol-free base for her syllabub glasses: lemon or orange whey in place of the wine. Her whipt syllabub of 1747 whisks thick cream with sack, citrus and sugar and lays the froth over sweetened red wine in glasses, but she adds that the glasses can hold “Cyder sweetned, or any Wine you please, or Lemon, or Orange-whey made thus: Squeeze the Juice of a Lemon or Orange into a quarter of a Pint of Milk, when the Curd is hard, pour the Whey clear off, and sweeten it to your Palate.”
A whey under the cream
That whey is the base of this version: a clear, sharp, faintly sweet liquid in the bottom of each glass, with the white cream heaped above it. Lemon whey was also drunk on its own, and our Lemon Whey, Hot Milk Turned with Lemon Juice gives Maria Rundell’s 1806 way of making a glassful.
The cream itself is the one place where we go further than Glasse. Her cream always takes half a pint of sack to the quart, and she gives no version without it. We put fresh orange juice in its place, the same measure, so the cream still loosens and takes the citrus. The original, with sherry and red wine, is Whipt Syllabub, Hannah Glasse’s Cream and Sack from 1747.
Read more about this recipe
Making it today
Warm the milk before the lemon goes in; cold milk takes a long time to turn, while warm milk curds in a few minutes. Strain the whey through muslin or a coffee filter so it comes out clear. Glasse also colored her syllabubs, “some with Juice of Spinage, some with Saffron, and some with Cochineal,” and a pinch of saffron steeped in a spoonful of hot water tints the cream a soft gold without any alcohol.
Other drinks people made without wine or spirits are gathered in Alcohol-Free Drinks Through History.
To make Whipt Syllabubs.
Take a Quart of thick Cream, and half a Pint of Sack, the Juice of two Seville Oranges, or Lemons, grate in the Peel of two Lemons, half a Pound of double-refined Sugar, pour it into a broad earthen Pan, and whisk it well; but first sweeten some Red Wine, or Sack, and fill your Glasses as full as you chuse; then as the Froth rises, take it off with a Spoon, and lay it carefully into your Glasses, till they are as full as they will hold. Don’t make these long before you use them. You may use Cyder sweetned, or any Wine you please, or Lemon, or Orange-whey made thus: Squeeze the Juice of a Lemon or Orange into a quarter of a Pint of Milk, when the Curd is hard, pour the Whey clear off, and sweeten it to your Palate. You may colour some with Juice of Spinage, some with Saffron, and some with Cochineal, just as you fancy.
Recipe makes: About 900 ml, 8 small glasses
Ingredients
For About 900 ml, 8 small glasses. Quantities are shown as written.
Quantities as written here, for About 900 ml, 8 small glasses.
Lemon whey
- Whole milk240 ml
- Lemons, juiced, for the whey2
- Caster sugar1 metric tbsp (15 ml per tbsp)
Syllabub
- Double cream480 ml
- Fresh orange juice120 ml
- Seville orange or lemon, juiced1
- Lemon, for its grated peel1
- Caster sugar115 g
Measurement notes
Ingredients as written here
- 240 ml whole milk
- 2 lemons, juiced, for the whey
- 1 tbsp caster sugar
- 480 ml double cream
- 120 ml fresh orange juice
- 1 Seville orange or lemon, juiced
- 1 lemon, for its grated peel
- 115 g caster sugar
Equipment
Small saucepan
Fine sieve, lined with a coffee filter or muslin
Fine grater
Large bowl
Whisk
Small stemmed glasses
Instructions
Warm the whole milk in a small saucepan until it steams, then take it off the heat.
Stir in the lemon juice and leave it for about 5 minutes, until the curd has set firm and the liquid is clear.
Strain through a lined strainer into a jug, without pressing the curd, and stir in the caster sugar for the whey. Let it cool, then divide it among the glasses.
Grate the peel of the lemon into a large wide bowl.
Add the double cream, fresh orange juice, the juice of the Seville orange or lemon and the caster sugar.
Whisk until the cream is thick and just holds soft peaks; stop before it turns stiff or grainy.
Spoon the cream gently onto the whey in each glass, heaping it as high as the glass will hold. Serve within an hour or two.
Nutrition
340calories per serving
- Recipe makes
- About 900 ml, 8 small glasses
- Servings
- 8
Roughly estimated from USDA FoodData Central values for heavy cream, granulated sugar, orange and lemon juice and whey, for one small glass.
Recipe notes
When adjusting quantities
The cream is half of Glasse’s quart. The whey is twice her quarter pint of milk, enough for eight glasses.
Notes
Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the batch.
Changes from the source: Glasse’s lemon whey is hers, but warming the milk, straining it through a cloth and the measure of sugar are ours; she says only to sweeten it “to your Palate.” Doubling her quarter pint of milk, so there is whey for eight glasses, is ours. In the cream, the fresh orange juice in place of her sack is ours. The cream is half of her quart, about 480 ml, and the citrus and sugar are halved with it, and whisking it to soft peaks instead of skimming the froth is ours too.
The curd left in the strainer is a soft fresh cheese; it can be eaten with a little sugar.
Storage
Serve within an hour or two. The whey can be made a few hours ahead and kept in the fridge.
Scaling changes the ingredients only; glassware, ice and timings need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.
Sources and attribution
A modern alcohol-free adaptation of “To make Whipt Syllabubs”, with the lemon whey given there, in [Hannah Glasse], The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy, by a Lady (London: printed for the author, 1747), p. 144
Recipe details
- Drink
- Alcohol-free
- Region
- British
- Era
- 18th century
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Occasion
- Dinner partyChristmas
- Season
- Summer