Lady Macbeth used spiked possets to drug the royal bodyguards so her husband could murder the king.
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That was the only thing I knew about possets until Diana Henry showed me that they had far kinder uses.
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But possets are very adaptable, so feel free to play around with different citrus (lime, grapefruit, Meyer lemons), other fruity toppings and the amount of sugar.
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In 16th-century and later sources, possets are generally made from lemon or other citrus juice, cream and sugar. Eggs are often added. Some recipes used breadcrumbs to thicken the beverage. "Posset sets" for mixing and serving possets were popular gifts, and valuable ones (often made of silver) were heirlooms.
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Purl-royal was a similar concoction made using wine in place of ale or beer. The English took the drink with them to North America and a purl house was opened in New York, where rich punches and possets were popular.
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In a description of an initiation ceremony at Merton College, Oxford in 1647, caudle is described as a "syrupy gruel with spices and wine or ale added". William Carew Hazlitt provides a number of recipes for caudles and possets in his 1886 book, Old Cookery Books and Ancient Cuisine. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica describes it as "a drink of warm gruel, mixed with spice and wine, formerly given to women in childbed", i.e. as a restorative food during her postpartum confinement.
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One of the producers told Williams that the audience had been given a party before the recording and most were drunk. Here is a lyrical excerpt from a Christmas episode, Cinderella, first broadcast on Christmas Eve 1967, of "Good King Boroslav": :Good King Boroslav looked out, :On the night of grungers, :Saw them wurdling round about, :Armed with rubber plungers, :Brightly shone their artefacts, :Red their possets glowing, :He knew not from whence they came, (switches back into suggestive accent) :But 'e knew where they were going! In 1975, Williams later starred with Leslie Phillips, Lance Percival, Miriam Margolyes and others, in the short-lived radio sketch show Oh, Get On with It (based on a pilot episode entitled Get On With It), which also featured appearances by Rambling Syd.
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Here John sold seeds and plants, while Raffald, according to her advertisements in the local press, supplied "jellies, creams, possets, flummery, lemon cheese cakes, and all other decorations for cold entertainments; also, Yorkshire hams, tongues, brawn, Newcastle salmon, and sturgeon, pickles, and ketchups of all kinds, lemon pickles"; she also supplied the produce for, and organised, civic dinners. The following year, alongside confectionery, she was also selling: > pistachio nuts, French olives, Portugal and French plumbs, prunellos > [prunes], limes, preserved pine apples, and all sorts of dry and wet > sweetmeats, both foreign and English. Also Turkey figs and other raisins, > Jorden and Valencia almonds ... truffles, morels and all sorts of spices. Dedication in the 1769 edition of The Experienced English Housekeeper In 1769 Raffald published her cookery book, The Experienced English Housekeeper, which she dedicated to Lady Warburton.
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