Treacle Posset, Hot Milk Turned with Black Treacle
Reader ratingsBoiling milk turned with black treacle and strained into a glass: a hot, dark, sweet whey from the sick-room lessons of an 1877 London cookery school.
- Recipe makes
- About 250 ml, 1 glass
- Prep
- Cook
- Total
Includes a minute’s standing off the heat and the straining.
Treacle posset strained into a glass, with a sieve, a saucepan and squares of parkin.
The story behind the recipe
Treacle posset is boiling milk turned with black treacle and strained, so the glass holds a hot, dark, sweet whey and the curd stays behind in the sieve. The recipe comes from the sick-room lessons of the National Training School for Cookery in London, whose Official Handbook of 1877 teaches it as the alcohol-free twin of white wine whey: make the whey exactly as with wine, leave out the sugar, and use “the same quantity of treacle” instead.
A lesson for the sick-room
The handbook’s lessons are written as a demonstration, step by step, as the teacher would say them to the class. The white wine version takes a wineglassful of sherry or cowslip wine. The treacle version takes half a gill of treacle, the same amount, to half a pint of milk. The milk has to be fully at the boil, the handbook warns, or it will not curdle. After a minute at the side of the fire the whey is strained into a glass, and only the whey is served, since “the curds are not digestible.”
Read more about this recipe
Making it today
We follow the handbook’s amounts in metric: half an Imperial pint of milk is 285 ml, and half a gill is about 70 ml, roughly four and a half tablespoons of black treacle. That is a sweet glass, which is the point of the drink, and the treacle is also what turns the milk. Use whole milk.
Black treacle is the dark British cane syrup sold in tins; molasses is the nearest substitute outside the UK. Golden syrup is a different, paler product and should not be used here.
No period source we found places this posset on Bonfire Night, though modern recipe books do, but its treacle is the same as the parkin’s, and we pair them in What Did People Drink on Bonfire Night?. For another way of turning hot milk, try Maria Rundell’s Lemon Whey.
N.B.—Treacle posset is made in the same way, except that no sugar should be added to the milk, and the same quantity of treacle is used instead of wine.
Recipe makes: About 250 ml, 1 glass
Ingredients
For About 250 ml, 1 glass. Quantities are shown as written.
Quantities as written here, for About 250 ml, 1 glass.
- Whole milk285 ml
- Black treacle70 ml
Measurement notes
Ingredients as written here
- 285 ml whole milk
- 70 ml black treacle
Equipment
Small saucepan
Fine sieve
Heatproof cup or glass
Instructions
Bring the whole milk to a full boil in a small saucepan.
Pour in the black treacle and stir once.
Move the pan to the side of the stove, off the direct heat but still warm, and let it stand for about a minute while the curd forms.
Strain the whey through a fine sieve into a warmed glass or cup, and leave the curd behind.
Drink it hot.
Nutrition
400calories per serving
- Recipe makes
- About 250 ml, 1 glass
Roughly estimated from USDA FoodData Central values for whole milk and molasses, less about a third of the milk’s fat and protein left behind in the strained curd.
Recipe notes
When adjusting quantities
This is the handbook’s single glass. Make each glass separately for the clearest whey, or double everything in a larger pan.
Notes
Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the batch.
Changes from the source: the amounts are the handbook’s, converted to metric. The handbook says only “milk” and “treacle”; whole milk and black treacle are our reading. Stirring once, the fine sieve (the handbook just says to strain the whey into a glass) and warming the glass are ours. Its “side of the fire” becomes the side of the stove.
The curd may be soft and fine rather than firm. If the milk hardly turns, the drink is still a hot treacle milk, and it can be poured straight into the glass. The handbook’s straining only removes the curd.
The drink is alcohol-free and contains milk. Molasses works in place of black treacle; both are strongly flavored, so start with a little less if you are unsure.
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
The Official Handbook for the National Training School for Cookery (London: Chapman and Hall, 1877), Sick-room Cookery, Lesson 11, “White Wine Whey, or Treacle Posset”, p. 395
Recipe details
- Drink
- Alcohol-free
- Drink family
- Hot Drinks
- Region
- British
- Era
- 19th century
- Source decade
- 1870s
- Base
- Milk & whey
- Difficulty
- Easy