A flummery or frumenty, is a sort of porridge made from whole grains and quite often made more exciting by the addition of some alcohol. In ‘Recipes From An Old English Farmhouse’ Mrs Uttley describes a dish called Spanish Flummery, which doesn’t have any grain, but of it she says ‘This exotic recipe I think we never tried out’.
She describes the making of it and to me it sounds rather like zabaglione; there is zest of lemon, gelatine sugar, sherry, six egg yolks, and it is well-beaten, cooked and strained. I have never made zabaglione, in fact I am not sure I have ever eaten it, but apart from the gelatine the ingredients seem pretty much the same. English cooking has a reputation for being poor and boring, but there were certainly all sorts of interesting recipes and ideas for food in England…
Lois Elsden 