English Banqueting And Dessert Dishes

Take a culinary journey back through time with this informative course combining food history with practical cooking, led by food historian, broadcaster and writer Ivan Day.

This two-day course will give you the opportunity to practise long-forgotten cookery techniques and learn more about the history of food.

Day 1:

Syllabubs, Trifles and other Flummery – Sweets from English Dairy

Cream and dairy-based sweet dishes were once among the glories of Britain’s food culture. Though many are now extinct, a few have survived and a number revived by food writers like Elizabeth David, but in much altered form. Some like syllabubs, hatted kits and flummeries require specialised equipment to both make and serve them.

Learn how to whip up syllabub with a ‘pumping engine’ and serve it properly in original eighteenth century flared top syllabub glasses. We will also make flummery and jaunmange in original wooden and ceramic moulds.

Day 2:

Tudor and Jacobean Delights – The Sweetmeats of Renaissance England

On the second day, we will make some of the decorative confectionery of the ‘banquet’ course, so fashionable in sixteenth and seventeenth century England. We will make rosewater-flavoured wafers, baked in original wafering irons, and white and red gingerbreads printed from moulds carved when Shakespeare was still alive.

These are just a few of the ‘banqueting matters’ we will reconstruct on this unique course. Ivan will display original manuscript and print copies of some of the key recipe collections of the period.