Posset - A Historical Classic

Posset is a dessert that stems from jolly old England. It started out as a drink, but is nowadays most often served in scraped out lemon peels. It’s an incredibly simple dish, but we’re going to look into how each ingredient plays together to create a silky smooth dessert as well as why such an old dish might continue to find itself valid in the modern day.

Yet be cheerful knight: thou shalt eat a posset to-night at my house;

Where I will desire thee to laugh at my wife.

The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act 5, Scene 5 - William Shakespeare

Down creamy lane

If a dish could speak to us about it’s journey to get to the recipe we’re staring at, well posset might be one of the more interesting listens. We’d hear the stories about how both famous playwright Shakespeare and a monarch consumed this drink. The stories it would tell would likely include a number of fascinating people who we're unlikely to read about as it weaved itself into the daily lives of so many people throughout centuries.

Somewhere around the mid point in King Charles I’s life (though he didn’t know that yet) Charlie became sick enough for a physician to be called and that doctor prescribed a drink to help cure whatever sickness he had come down with.

Originally the posset was a dessert or drink made from curdled milk enriched with sugar, alcohol (the most popular being sack, a sweet ale similar to sherry). It was often used as a curative for colds or fevers; it is mentioned in the Journals of the House of Lords in the year 1620 that King Charles I was given a posset drink from his physician.

Quoting from British Food History there.

This dish could be said to be one that has seen many different versions throughout it’s lifetime and in it’s earliest form, it was considered a health tonic most often served as a drink.

Clearly Charles healed from his ailments because he went on to become king in 1625 before being famously beheaded in 1649.

The mention of posset by William Shakespeare in three of his plays alongside King Charles I’s physician prescribing this drink, are not outliers with KC Hysmith noting in her article Posset Goes Viral (Again) that

Several widely read early English cookbook authors featured posset in their texts. Elizabeth Raffald listed six different posset recipes in The Experienced English Housekeeper (1786), and English Housewifery (1789) by Elizabeth Moxon included several recipes, including one flavored with lemon like today’s viral version. These varieties demonstrate the dish’s socioeconomic flexibility. It could be made simply and cheaply with ale, a bit of sugar, and milk, or more luxuriously with cream, sack (a fortified wine) or brandy, as well as extra sugar, citrus, and additional imported spices like cinnamon, mace, and nutmeg.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, posset was a common feature of everyday life. It appears in many print and manuscript recipe books from the period and often in multiple variations.

Quoting there from Folger Shakespeare Library

The popularity of posset lies in the fact that

Due to its richness, the drink’s earliest imbibers believed it was “strengthening” and frequently used it as a medicine.

Throughout most of human history, people weren’t aware of how food affected their health in the way we understand today and there likely were some benefits to consuming posset as it survived centuries. It’s also interesting to see how this dish was served throughout society. As Folger Shakespeare Library notes

the number of times posset is referenced in drama and the innumerable recipes we have from the period show us that it was consumed in virtually every level of society, with some of the most expensive ingredients being substituted for less expensive ones (i.e., ale for sack). Possets would also be given in charity to the poorest members of society, so everyone would have drunk a lot of it in their lifetime.

Because it was such a fundamental part of life across all levels of society, we see how cemented as a dish it became, even though we see a fundamental shift in how posset was served and what it included

By the time we reach the mid-18th century, possets have changed; they are made from milk, but now are thickened with biscuits, bread, egg yolks or almonds, or a combination.

Quoting from British Food History, which has such a wealth of information

and Posset’s importance as a cultural dish is reflected in the fact

Sack possets were drunk at weddings when it came to toasting the bride and groom around this time,

Clearly weddings were not the same as they are today, but they were a special occasion, and the fact posset was used to toast the bride and groom reflects how easy it was for everyone to access the ingredients needed for it. There is also a likelihood it made more sense to serve at the time as the quality of wine wasn’t the best so most often spices, where possible, were added in to make wine more palatable and posset was a great base for spices to be added in already.

This holds true as per British Food History

In the 19th century, Richard Cox in his Oxford Night Caps (1835) mentions those made from curds and those thickened with cream and egg yolks, so technically a custard, I suppose. Sometimes they were thick, and sometimes drinkable like egg nog. He mentions a black pepper flavoured posset that will ‘promote perspiration’ in order to sweat out a fever.

Once again we see posset continuing to be used as a health tonic, even though it’s centuries after it was prescribed to King Charles and it had somewhat morphed into a type of custard which is different from what we know it as today it.

Truly posset is the original Madonna in reinvention.

According to Spokesman

Potters even made special posset cups, which featured a drinking spout so that a diner could sip the liquid at the bottom while spooning out the cream and custard from above.

It is not easy to find how we get from that egg nog style dish to the one we find all over pinterest and tiktok, but KC Hysmith describes it best in her article Posset Goes Viral (Again)

From the early 19th century to the 1970s to the 2000s, the repeated popularity of posset demonstrates society’s obsession with looking back fondly on the sweet parts of the past.

Understanding posset

Before we get into posset itself; we need to define what it is not. It isn’t a panna cotta, which does also have a dairy base, but requires gelatin of some kind to help give it that set, but lightly jiggly texture.

A lesser known dessert that comes from the same time period and some might confuse posset for, is a syllabub which is different in that it’s a curdled cream dessert by adding wine or cider. Apparently it can also be found to be whipped so has a lighter texture.

Another dish that posset is not, is that whilst it can be considered a custard, it doesn’t include any type of egg products. Traditional custards include eggs or egg yolks or even a mixture of the two, to create that beautiful smooth and rich creamy texture. Whereas, posset kind of flies in the face of this.

In my research I reviewed 8 different recipes for lemon posset as that’s the most popular way its served. This research was done, not just to confirm the ingredients required, but also the methods used to make it. Most of the time you’ll see taglines associated with this dish like ‘the easiest dessert you’ll make’ or something along those lines and it turns out for some people this easy dessert still requires two saucepans, but for now we’re going to set how to make it aside and consider the ingredients used.

I focused mainly on using British recipes in my research as this is where the dish is from and is still made much the same as in recipes elsewhere. In 6 of the 8 recipes, only 3 ingredients were called for and this is the most common way its traditionally made so was to be expected. Though to be fair, I did think 100% of the recipes I’d find would have cream, sugar and lemon juice and stop there. But that wasn’t quite the case.

The two remaining recipes in my research called for additional ingredients, with one calling for gelatin, which is the first time I’ve personally seen this recommended in a recipe for posset, and feels unnecessary when you consider the fact they heat the three ingredients together which is also not common and therefore, why gelatin is then required to set the dessert.

And the last recipe called for spices to be heated with the cream as an infusion to add a depth of flavor. This recipe is what you may say, in line with the more historical versions of posset, but lemon is one of those flavors that doesn’t require a lot of spices to bring it out so also feels unnecessary, though some might love this version.

To really understand this dessert we need to consider each ingredient; not just what they bring to the table, but how they interact together to create the beloved set, but creamy texture.

Sugar

Beginning with sugar, which is the simplest ingredient out of these three in regards to it’s chemical reactions, is the best place to start. In my research, 6 of the 8 recipes call for caster or superfine sugar and the remaining two call for white with 1 of those two calling for white or golden sugar, which we’ll come back to. Both white and caster are refined sugars that don’t have any molasses remaining, so they add sweetness without adding other flavors.

Caster or superfine has a finer texture as alluded to with that name, which means it dissolves faster into mixtures. Dissolving faster can help set the foundation for lots of recipes as it helps to kickstart the necessary reaction. In the case of posset, we want the sugar to dissolve within the timeframe that we should be cooking the cream, as it needs to be a nice smooth mixture when removed from the heat and superfine is great here.

The one recipe that calls for either white or golden sugar, well, for those of us who aren’t completely sure what golden sugar is, Tasting Table explains that

Golden sugar has some of the same toasted, caramelized notes, but it won't be as flavor-forward as brown sugar.

When sugar is refined the molasses is removed and golden sugar doesn’t have all of it removed, but it’s only a very minimal amount left over, so in this case the flavor would be complimentary to the lemon.

Sugar in posset adds sweetness whilst balancing out the acidity from the lemon juice and Spokesman also reveals that

Sugar, dissolved into the cream before the acid is added, encourages the cream to thicken evenly.

So it’s job is pivotal to help create the smooth and even texture where it’s heated with the cream.

However, in my research, three of the 8 recipes call for the sugar and the lemon juice to be heated together whilst the cream is heated separately. In these cases, I’m going to come back to what happens when we heat lemon juice, but the sugar is dissolved in the heating process for all recipes.

I say this often, and if you’ve seen more than one of my videos you’ve probably heard me say this, but it's best not to lower the sugar content, especially in this recipe as each of the ingredients is playing into the final beloved result and this is a truly once-in-a-while dessert so keeping the recipe as it is stated is best here.

Cream

Before we dive into how the cream thickens, we need to go back to my research with 7 of the 8 recipes calling for double cream; which is a British product. Whilst in the US heavy cream is effectively the substitute; they’re not the same. Double cream is approximately 48% fat whilst heavy cream is between 36-40% fat.

As per the Allrecipes article What Is Double Cream – And Is It Different From Heavy Cream?

The higher fat content not only makes for a richer custard but allows anything it touches to feel more luxe and decadent.

Heavy cream is around 67% water, whereas double cream has water content of around 50% and this matters as we cook the cream and the way it reacts with the lemon juice can be somewhat different.

Though double and heavy cream aren’t exactly the same, you can use them interchangeably when making posset. If using heavy cream, you might want to cook your cream for a further 2-3 minutes to help reduce the water content on low heat, though we’ll come back to the temperature in a moment.

According to The Spruce Eats

The simmering process removes water from the cream, leaving the fat, which will then react with the lemon juice and thicken into the posset.

Thanks to 177 Milk Street we understand the heat needed for the right chemical reaction:

Heating the cream (to at least 140?) changes the way its proteins coagulate and gel.

140 degrees Fahrenheit mentioned there is 60 degrees celsius. For those without a thermometer, it’s where you

Heat the cream until barely simmering around the edges

This usually takes around 5 minutes, but once lightly simmering the cream can come to boiling very swiftly, so you want to pay attention here. Once the cream is heated, the way the proteins within it thicken or specifically curdle once we add the lemon juice come together to create this beautiful smooth texture, but that’s only created by heating the cream up to the right temperature.

Simply put

Modern possets are curdled, but the curds are teeny tiny, so small you barely notice them.

It’s a thing of beauty really, because most of us consider curdling as a negative texture, but here, it’s this incredible smooth texture when cooked right.

A note here, I did not use a timer with my posset, but by the time I saw a simmer at the edges and removed it from the heat, the cream had gotten to 80C, but as you can see the texture wasn’t overly affected and this was made using British double cream.

So many times I’ve made posset on medium high heat to the point it’s bubbling over and had to take it off the heat to continue cooking it for several minutes. The bonus of my continued cooking is that the dessert always sets, but once again, thanks to Claire Lower from 177 Milk Street,

Higher temperatures, over 176?, denature some of the stickier whey proteins, which forms an even more robust, firmer gel—a bit too firm for our liking.

176 degrees Fahrenheit is equal to 80 degrees celsius and the robust firmer texture is not ideal when making lemon posset, but this tidbit is helpful to consider when making a posset with a different citrus or acidic fruit. We’re going to discuss that further in the next chapter.

Lemons

When speaking about lemons in this chapter, so much of it is because the majority of recipes call for it; So whilst I’m specifically speaking about lemons, I’m also speaking about flavor. This is the key ingredient to providing the flavor in this dessert, so it’s also helpful to consider why lemon is the most frequent flavor version in posset.

According to The Spruce Eats

posset relies entirely on the citric acid found in lemon juice and other citrus fruits.

Citric acid is found naturally in citrus fruits, especially lemons and limes. It’s what gives them their tart, sour taste.

Lemons and limes contain the highest amount of citric acid and trying to find the percentage of citric acid in different fruits for this video proved somewhat difficult because this hasn’t been studied much. Thanks to America’s Test Kitchen, we see how lemon is both the most called for citrus in this dessert and why it helps to create the firm texture

Because a properly set posset needs a strong acid, you don’t often see it prepared with anything other than lemon juice (pH of about 2.6), unless lemon juice is added to other fruit juices to boost acidity—but this then obscures their flavor.

In that article, America’s Test Kitchen found a workaround by using store bought citric acid and mixing it with fresh fruit juice to help set possets with other acidic fruit…But here’s the thing, they use tablespoons and not all tablespoons weigh the same amount in liquid weight, in fact some are even different sizes around the globe, so your tablespoon amount is probably going to vary a little from mine, which isn’t the most precise measurement. They made a bunch of different possets using this method with the article linked below, but you have to have a membership to access their other recipes so I can’t speak for exact methods used.

Now that we’ve considered how the lemon thickens the cream we need to consider the amount of juice used. All recipes call for fresh lemon juice as it has no further additives so gives the dessert the best flavor. The size of the lemons is barely mentioned in the recipes in my research, in fact, in the 8 recipes, only 1 actually lists the amount of juice in milliliter's in the ingredient section and that’s Olive magazine.

And only two of the remaining recipes mention the size of the lemons or the quantity of juice required with 4 noting the amount of juice you should have in the instructions. So we’re going to assume, unless specified the lemons are all medium size.

Thanks to Allrecipes, an average

½ lemon = 1 tablespoon juice

Because grams are always more reliable than volume (because 1 tablespoon is not the same size the world over) 1 tablespoon lemon juice equates to 15 grams.

I’m sharing this so if you’re following a recipe and have extra large lemons and it’s calling for 6 lemons then you might end up with way too much juice or the same with tiny ones.

Now three of the recipes in my research call for heating the lemon juice and the sugar together and this is not a method I’ve seen in my research historically, so did a little digging to see if this would alter the flavor of the lemon. Thankfully Ludvig H had read a book called The Genius Citrus and discovered

Acetaldehyde in fresh lemon juice is a major contributer to the freshness and pungency. That componds is largely reduced when lemon juice is heated.

So I’m going to say if you want to make lemon posset and it calls for heating the lemon juice you need to consider that 1 - the lemon flavor will be altered or weakened in your finished dessert and 2 - you’ll be using two saucepans to make this easy dessert. Who really wants more dishes?

I personally wouldn’t follow a recipe like that, because the lemon flavor is pivotal and this recipe should be quick and easy and that’s making it more complicated than it need be. Whilst we’re on the topic of lemon juice, if you’re looking at a recipe and thinking that’s too much sugar, I’ll add more juice to make sure it’s not overly sweet, well, Spokesman notes

You might think more lemon juice would help the posset set faster, but lemon juice contains a lot of water, and that will actually impede thickening.

Again, each ingredient is bringing exactly what’s needed to the table and messing with the amounts can mess things up…if you’re working with a recipe that doesn’t specify the amount of juice needed; 90 milliliters which is about 94 grams or 6 American tablespoons is a pretty happy medium for 500 grams / 2 cups cream.

One more thing when it comes to the lemon. In their tests for posset in America’s Test Kitchen, Annie Petito stated

I could infuse the cream with zest—which contains fragrant oils that are more resistant than juice to breaking down under heat—for nuanced complexity.

This brings me to the last piece of our flavor puzzle, infusing the posset with zest during the heating phase was something that came up a lot, with unwaxed lemons being used. But there is another option because I love a good infusion…the amount of times I’ve tried infusions that have worked or failed, but infusions are incredible for depth of flavor and the best infusions don’t happen quickly.

When we consider flavors we often think about the ones that slap us in the tastebuds - clear, zingy, bright, but often the ones that leave an aftertaste and that make us reach for another spoonful are the undertones and infusion is incredible at that. Citrus fruits are great at infusion thanks to the oils in their peel that carries those beautiful flavors.

So I would suggest tossing in pieces of peel (that have no white pith attached as that’s the bitter part) into your cream container a day before making posset to cold infuse and then remove those once heated. I know this is making it more complicated than necessary though. Just a thought.

Editing Sylvie here with another note. I had the full intention to cold infuse half the cream overnight and do the simple heat infusion with the cream with the other half. But we had family staying over so I completely forget as was both tired and distracted at the time. I can say the infusion worked from a flavor standpoint, but you yourself could try this out and see if there is a difference in the flavor.

Lastly, if you wanted to make posset with a different fruit without having to add storebought citric acid there is potentially another option. I haven’t tested this with all fruits containing citric acid, but I have successfully made passionfruit posset a couple of times and had great results.

After lemons, limes have the highest levels of citric acid and so you could replace lemon juice equally with lime without doing anything different. If you want to use something like oranges, pomelos, passionfruit, pineapple, raspberry or cherry juice these have citric acid levels, but lower and at differing amounts than lemons or limes, and therefore the posset is less likely to set. Except, if you cook your cream longer and ignore this advice from 177 Milk Street

Higher temperatures, over 176?, denature some of the stickier whey proteins, which forms an even more robust, firmer gel—a bit too firm for our liking.

That 80 degree celsius temperature rule applies to lemon posset, but for fruits with lower citric acid you could cook your cream longer where it comes to a rolling boil and cooks off more of the water content and then stir through an equal portion of juice from fruits with a lower level citric acid.

As I’ve had success with passionfruit and I naturally cooked my cream longer this indicates that the cream is likely to set with these lower levels of citric acid without having to get really technical like measuring the pH balance in the fruit or using differing amounts of store-bought citric acid, but do proceed with caution as the final results aren’t guaranteed and once again I’ve only tried this with passionfruit.

Serving

Editing Sylvie here, and presentation of this dessert wasn’t even a thought when writing the script or doing the research for this episode.

But as previously mentioned, if you search this dish, the likelihood most photos will include it served in hollowed out lemons is very high thanks to the age of social media. Most of the photos from my research from recipes in the United Kingdom don’t really reflect this trend as it is supposed to be a quick dessert.

So for this video and my website, I made some in the hollowed out lemons for the first time and had some things worth mentioning.

Firstly, I found the process of hollowing them out was kind of finicky and way less fun and slower than standard pouring into an espresso cup.

Secondly, the amount of juice from my hollowed out lemons was exactly what was needed for the recipe, but the amount of posset made was far more than what fit into those lemon halves. So you’re either going to end up with lots of leftover lemon centers or juice and the process of hollowing them out will take longer for the visual aesthetic. Whilst this won’t matter to most people, I care about sustainability and this was clearly a potential problem in waste.

Thirdly, the lemons don’t have a natural flat base so you’re also going to have to place them nicely snug into a large dish that fits them just right…or in the case here, I had to use a ceramic dish as an additional edge. With the process of finding the right dish taking longer than anticipated, if I’d known how many tins and dishes I’d try out, I would have filmed it.

Fourthly, I balanced the lemons perfectly in the tin and then began pouring the posset, but you see I didn’t get them all the way to the edges, which is easier to control in a serving cup.

Lastly, lots of people are bruleeing the tops of their posset and I find this loosens the texture just a little, so that it looks a little underdone. This is neither a here nor there, but something worth noting.

A medium halved lemon doesn’t have a large surface area so you need to be careful when using a blowtorch. I accidentally ended up with a burn on my thumb shooting the video, so broiling or grilling might be easier, though that will then lightly char the lemon peel which will take away from the overall look as well.

I’m sharing these findings, not to put you off doing the aesthetic lemon peel serving, if that’s what you want, it does require slightly more time and effort.

Garnishes

Many recipes for posset will include garnishes from tart raspberries to homemade or store-bought lemon biscuits or even chopped nuts, as this is an incredibly rich dish so these garnishes serve a couple of purposes.

Firstly, they help provide a textural difference to our palate, because cream is a naturally heavy ingredient. That textural difference can help make the dish overall more pleasing.

Secondly, though posset requires acidity to thicken, the lemon is more of an undertone in flavor so adding lemon biscuits or another tart garnish like raspberries helps cut through the richness of the cream.

Tart garnishes work fantastically here to make it not just visually appealing, but more tasty when you consider that raspberries or strawberries naturally compliment lemon flavors or even a small citrus salad of oranges and grapefruits on top can turn this incredible quick and simple dish into quite a visually appealing and tasty dessert with minimal effort.

Historical foods and modern day

There has recently been a resurgence in some people actively making dishes that seem inevitable to disappear from common knowledge altogether, particularly British dishes. We have probably all heard the many jokes about British cuisine being a series of beige. But there is something about food that nourished people in different parts of history and taping into a world that looks wholly different to the one we exist in, particularly for people who grew up eating a dish that is no longer found on menus.

Annie Mae Herring who has been making a variety of British recipes for her Instagram The Culinary Bee has captivated the beauty and nostalgia locked into some historical dishes

They provide a snapshot of a different time.

Time moves us forward and as mentioned briefly in my Baking video, many of the desserts we have today have come about post the 1700s when sugar became readily available to the masses. This where posset is different as KC Hysmith puts it perfectly in her article Posset Goes Viral (Again)

In its simplicity, and with a fairly familiar flavor profile, posset provided 21st-century home cooks with an easy and low-stakes method of interacting with the past. Posset’s relatively ruleless recipe history and wealth of historical variations allowed eaters the opportunity to romanticize the dish and how we consume it.

Many of the dishes that seem destined to be forgotten no longer fit into what we consider appetizing or they aren’t particularly appealing to look at. Some have ingredients that we have to track down or we don’t particularly feel confident cooking or baking with. 21st Century palates are used to a variety of flavors and we all have easy access to spices, sugar, fruits that aren’t in season thanks to the globalized world. This makes it easy to create certain dishes that we grew up with, but most of human history would never have even dreamed of being able to create over their stovetops.

Annie Mae Herring has found an unexpected outcome from making these dishes

Herring says she had expected a little bit of nostalgia, but it's been "overwhelming just how emotional people have been".

Food nourishes, satisfies, delights, it can make us feel whole. In late 2025 there was a bunch of ‘food trend’ articles and one dish kept showing up as one to watch out for on more American menus. The humble British pie. Not filled with fruit. Potentially made with a hot water crust. This old dish that has also been around and seen it’s fair share of iterations and changes throughout history.

And I kept thinking about my own connection to the thing American’s seem to only now be getting a taste for - meat pies. Something you can source easily almost any hour of the day in New Zealand and last year when I landed back there at 4:45am, the first thing I bought at 6:30am, was a meat pie.

Food can lay us bare and consuming a dish from a different life, a different time can make us emotional. So many of us see dishes on the internet and want to change it and in the case of posset, that is easily done. For some people they’ve known posset their whole lives and maybe they wonder why it is now showing up served in scooped out lemons. Or maybe they feel sheer delight at seeing it show up, like an old friend.

The fact posset continues to be relevant in the changing world, time after time with a renewed love by someone who’s either only just been introduced to it or has had it many times before is reflective of how great this dish is. This dessert is so easy and forgiving that it’s something virtually anyone with access to these three ingredients can make and that is a great way to keep it moving through the passage of time.

So it’s likely if posset could tell you about the journey it’s been on to get in front of you that the stories it could tell would fascinate and enthrall. By the time it was done telling you it’s stories, it would be time to take it out of the fridge and serve it up to dig your spoon into.

If you’ve watched this all the way through, thank you so much for your time. See you in the next one, thanks, Ka kite an? and tschüss

Video Essay

TIME STAMPS:

• Down creamy lane: 1:02
• Understanding posset: 6:52
• Sugar: 10:09
• Cream: 12:47
• Lemons: 16:27
• Serving: 26:08
• Garnishes: 29:48
• Historical foods and modern day: 30:55

SOURCES:

CHAPTER 1: Down creamy lane

• British Food History: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2012/04/28/possets/
• Posset Goes Viral (Again): https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/posset-goes-viral-again-the-instagrammification-of-a-17th-century-dessert-september-2023/
• Food Historian - KC Hysmith: https://www.kchysmith.com/
• Folger Shakespeare Library: https://www.folger.edu/blogs/shakespeare-and-beyond/posset-shakespeare-recipes/
• Posset pot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posset#/media/File:Posset_pot.jpg
• King Charles painting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_I_of_England#/media/File:King_Charles_I_after_original_by_van_Dyck.jpg
• Charles 1 Portraits: https://www.discoverbritain.com/history/icons/charles-i/
• Sack posset from Regula Ysewijn’s Pride and Pudding: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/apr/07/historic-recipes-sack-posset-a-rich-pudding-to-cure-all-ills

CHAPTER 2: Understanding posset

• Allrecipes: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/86428/lemon-posset/
• Waitrose: https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/recipe/the-best-lemon-posset
• The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/food/2024/jan/31/how-to-make-lemon-posset-recipe-felicity-cloake
• Riverford: https://www.riverford.co.uk/recipes/lemon-posset
• BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/lemonpossetwithlemon_85812
• Great British Chefs: https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/recipes/lemon-posset-recipe-raspberries-shortbread
• The Spruce Eats: https://www.thespruceeats.com/perfect-lemon-posset-recipe-435139
• Olive Magazine: https://www.thespruceeats.com/perfect-lemon-posset-recipe-435139
• Syllabub image: https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/citrus-syllabub.html
• Roamingtaste posset: https://roamingtaste.com/lemon-posset/

CHAPTER 3: Sugar

• Golden Sugar: https://www.tastingtable.com/1802006/what-is-golden-sugar-vs-regular-sugar/
• Golden sugar: https://therefill.co.uk/products/golden-caster-sugar

CHAPTER 4: Cream

• What Is Double Cream – And Is It Different From Heavy Cream?: https://www.allrecipes.com/what-is-double-cream-7548939
• Lemon posset is the no-fuss pudding you need in your life: https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2023/may/10/lemon-posset-is-the-no-fuss-pudding-you-need-in-yo/

CHAPTER 5: Lemons

• How Much Juice Is in One Lemon?: https://www.allrecipes.com/how-much-juice-is-in-one-lemon-11933004
• My Favorite Lemon Dessert Is 600 Years Old: https://www.177milkstreet.com/stories/my-favorite-lemon-dessert-is-600-years-old
• What Is Citric Acid? Benefits, Uses, Safety & Side Effects: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/citric-acid
• Heating lemon juice: https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/105048/what-happens-to-lemon-juice-when-boiled
• The Genius Citrus book: https://www.sciencedirect.com/book/edited-volume/9780128121634/the-genus-citrus
• Lemon paintings: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2024/mar/23/the-king-of-zing-lemons-in-art-in-pictures
• So many: https://yarn.co/yarn-clip/4c156625-b826-4e0f-9b1b-44a361f9a306

CHAPTER 8: Historical foods and modern day

• Image: https://www.bhg.com/3-ingredient-lemon-posset-8670846
• Image: https://www.sainsburysmagazine.co.uk/recipes/desserts/lemon-posset-with-almond-snaps
• Annie Mae Herring: https://www.instagram.com/theculinarybee/
• The home cooks reviving forgotten British dishes you've probably never heard of: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cje4pl85pxwo

MUSIC

• Source Damour by Arthur-Marie Brillouin

For the algorithm!! This is a video essay / commentary video all about the historical dessert posset. The history of posset, and how each of the the three ingredients interact.

PSA: My scripts are completely written by myself (no outsourcing to AI), however, I cannot guarantee that some of the media sourced for use in the video isn’t made by AI.