This easy recipe makes a cool lime custard in ten minutes work plus 4 hours chilling time, and is just made from limes, sugar and cream. No eggs, no flour. So why does it thicken? It’s the lime juice that coagulates the milk proteins. This recipe was suggested by one in Bon Appetit. Possets go way back to the 16^th century and are mentioned in Shakespeare as well as by other writers of the time. In British Food History, Neil Cooks Grigson writes that most mentions of possets in the 18^th and 19^th century were to a warm drink made with curdled milk, sugar and alcohol, but there is one 1769 article that pretty much describes what 20^th and 21^st century cooks are making. You can make possets using any acidic fruit juice: orange and lemon possets are also common. In each case, the acid of the fruit coagulates the cream, but because of its high fat content, it makes a smooth custardy texture.

• 2 limes, peeled into strips
• Juice of the same 2 limes
• 2 cups heavy cream
• ½ cup sugar
• Pinch of Kosher salt
• 4 ramekins
• 1 peach
• ½ cup cream
• 1 Tb sugar
• 4 mint leaves

1. Put the cream, sugar and salt in saucepan and add the strips of lime peel. Boil gently for 5 minutes to reduce and thicken the cream.

2. Strain the cream and return it to the saucepan. Add the lime juice and stir.
3. Allow the cream to cool a bit and begin to thicken and pour into four ramekins.
4. Chill for 4 or more hours.

5. Peel the peach by submerging it in boiling water for a minute and cooling it in cold water. Pull off the peel, using a vegetable peeler if it is stubborn.
6. Cut the peach into slices, place into a bowl and sugar them with about 1 Tb sugar.
7. When ready to serve, add the sugar to the ½ cup of cream and whip it. Place a peach slice on each ramekin, add a dollop of cream, and decorate with a mint leaf.

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