Flummery (n.)
1. A sweet, soft oatmeal based pudding
2. Meaningless ceremonies and nonsense flattery.
So there I was driving my car, stuck in slow-moving traffic one afternoon last week, when all of a sudden a word pops into my head.
Flummery.
For no apparent reason this word cavorted about, did a couple of cartwheels and disappeared, leaving me wondering, What exactly is flummery?
What I did know was that it is a magic word. Say it aloud and you'll agree. Flummery. It just tumbles off the tongue, and cascades over the lips.
But I wasn't so sure what the meaning of the word was. I had a vague idea that it was a type of dessert. Perhaps a fluffy, fruity one? I guessed there may be sponge involved?
So it was off to Google University to find out.
What I discovered is that 'flummery' means a lot of different things in different places and times. The flummery recipes on websites such as http://www.bestrecipes.com.au/ or http://www.taste.com.au/ look positively delicious: light, summery, fluffy concoctions full of fruit flavour and mostly set with gelatine.
Digging a little deeper however, I found flummery's origins were not so tasty.
According to the The British Food Trust's Great British Kitchen Cookbook, "Flummery occurs in manuscript menus for Scottish feasts as early as the fifteenth century. The ingredients varied but the basis was always soaked cereal, the liquid from which sets to a clear jelly". The base could be flavoured (usually with orange juice or rosewater) and topped with cream and honey and sometimes alcohol.
I found a recipe for what seemed to be a traditional Scottish flummery, such as would have been made and prepared before our time and I decided to give it a go.
I'm warning you, the making of flummery requires commitment. It's a three-day process.
Day One: Soak 75g of fine oatmeal in cold water (enough to cover), stand and leave for 24 hours.
Day Three: Strain liquid into a saucepan, pushing as much liquid out of the oatmeal as possible. Discard the oatmeal. Add the juice of two oranges, and 25g caster sugar. Bring to the boil, reduce heat, stir while simmering for 10 minutes until the mixture thickens...
After 20 minutes of stirring the simmering mixture I accepted it was never going to thicken, much less set. And besides, it seemed incredibly unappealing.
The next step of the recipe called for 150mls of double cream to be stirred through the cooled (thickened) mixture before pouring it into bowls to set.
At this point, I decided not to throw good cream after bad flummery and I abandoned my experiment.
This is not an unusual experience. I have had mixed results in the past with recipes from before our time that needed to thicken and set. Who could forget the bad blancmange that had the colour and consistency of snot?
I have a theory about this, which I welcome your comment on. My theory is based on absolutely no solid evidence or rigorous research, just pure hunch. I think that some of our ingredients don't necessarily have the same qualities as they may have had a century or more ago.
Is our oatmeal more refined than the 15th Century Scottish oatmeal was? Does ours contain less starches than are required to set the rogue flummery?
Has anyone ever made an oatmeal flummery that set? Or do you have other old recipes that don't work as well as they used to?
11 comments:
did the recipe suggest fine oatmeal? I use rolled oats for general cooking, my theory being there is more surface area from which to raise starch.
(there is no confirmed scientific theory behind this, more a general feel for it being a feasible explanation :-)
I agree with ingredients having different properties. Maybe our fine oatmeal is too fine?
I think our modern foods are too refined for these recipes too.
I think you have hit the nail on the head - our foods are more refined than they were centuries ago.
I don't ever remember having a flummery but will do some research in Scotland in the next month!
Also the type of oats grown then was much different from what we have today. It may be that a lot of the glutenous properties have been bred out.
I don't know why but as I read Day Three that old joke about how to cook a crow came into my head. You know the one where the recipe says boil the crow with a brick for x number of hours, then throw out the crow and eat the brick...
Anyway, yes I suspect that what you have stumbled upon is the ideal experiment to run to determine the quality of oatmeal. Your flummery doesn't set? Bad oatmeal.
I think we had to make it in High School as part of 'learning'.
1. - like Trashalou said, I would have used rolled oats ( and I too wonder if the recipe called for 'fine' oatmeal, and if so, perhaps something was lost in translation ?
2. - in ye olden times, the oats would not have been thrown oat ( geddit, geddit ? ), but this was an economical way of creating two meals - one savoury, one sweet. The 'discarded' oats would have found themselves thickening a nourishing stew, IMO.
But i'm glad you didn't throw good cream after bad flummery :)
That recipe did not sound at all appetising - in fact it made my stomach heave slightly. Old style Scottish cooking does not sound all that appealing. You have made me think of junket, sago pudding, and suchlike. I am sure that the oatmeal would have been given to the pigs or dogs... lucky things.
Tomorrow I am going to make an orange and almond cake to soothe my stomach.
Trashalou and H&B - yes, the recipe did call for 'fine oatmeal'...but i wasn't entirely sure what that meant. i used porridge oats. Maybe that was part of the problem? :)
H&B - I didn't even think about whether or not the oats should be thrown 'oat' (groan...). Now I feel guilty for wanton wastage. I could have dished them up as an appetising snack for the kids!
Persiflage - all donations of slices of orange and almond cake gratefully accepted!
Flummery just means a milk pudding thickened with something usually a starch of some kind hence the oatmeal (not rolled oats) in Scotland but often egg yolks or gelatine instead especially in other countries and enhanced with whatever you like from whisky to spices to fruit to sugar or honey. The oatmeal variety can take time in order to soften the oats and extract the starch but gelatine is much quicker and eggs almost instant. Never had it myself but the taste depends on what's added.
wow never heard of this orginal flummery .. my mum makes a delightful passionfruit flummery - a little different I suspect ... le
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