Flummery: a definition and a recipe

Flummery

1618. [— Welsh llymru, of unkn. etym.; the fl- is for Welsh ll-.] 1. ‘A kind of food made by coagulation of wheatmeal or oatmeal’ (J .). In Mod. Cookery, any of various sweet dishes made with milk, flour, eggs, etc. 2. fig. Mere compliment; nonsense, humbug, empty trifling 1749. Also attrib.

To make oatmeal flummery.

Get ſome oatmeal, put it into a broad deep pan, then cover it with water, ſtir it together, and let it ſtand twelve hours, then pour off that water clear, and put on a good deal of freſh water, ſhift it again in twelve hours, and ſo on in twelve more; then pour off the water clear, and ſtrain the oatmeal through a coarſe hair ſieve, and pour it into a ſauce-pan, keeping it ſtirring all the time with a ſtick till it boils and is very thick; then pour it into diſhes; when cold turn it into plates, and eat it with what you pleaſe, either wine and ſugar, or beer and ſugar, or milk. It eats very pretty with cyder and ſugar.

You muſt obſerve to put a great deal of water to the oatmeal and when you pour off the laſt water, pour on juſt enough freſh as to ſtain the oatmeal well. some let it ſtand forty-eight hours ſome three days, ſhifting the water every twelve hours ; but that is as you love it for ſweetneſs or tartneſs. Gruts once cut does better than oatmeal. Mind to ſtir it together when you put in freſh water.