🍷 Posset

Posset is an old British hot drink. It was made from hot milk curdled with wine or ale and flavoured with spices. The result was a sweetish liquid on top and a soft curd below.

Posset has been known in Britain since the Middle Ages. It was drunk as a warming remedy for colds, and later served as a festive drink too. The acid in wine or ale curdles the milk protein, so posset is tied to the idea of curdling.

Posset resembles mulled wine: both are hot and spiced, but in posset the milk is the main thing. Today the word is recalled mostly as the name of a traditional drink and an old dessert, and it is almost absent from modern menus. Wine here only serves to curdle the milk. Recipes changed from house to house, but the principle stayed the same. This drink shows how long people have known that acid and heat curdle milk. Today a cold dessert known by the same name is also made on this basis.