But if a man reaches for the abode of the gods, desires a pantheon there to sport among the thunders of the Dagda, or race towards an ever-receding shore tight-handed in the manes of the stallions of Mananáin – what qualifying cup must he drink? The stickler for truth may only answer Scailtín.
Irish Press, 27 January 1960
Milk punch is a drink with a long history, and while thought to be much older, has been referenced since the 1600s. It’s similar to syllabub or posset, of which eggnog is a variation. I’ve found a few sources and modern cookbooks refer to the Irish version as scailtín, and an advertisement by Reilly and Son’s for “this Delicious Beverage, as made for his late Majesty George the Fourth” in an 1850 edition of the Dublin Weekly Register, “for the first time offered to the notice of the Irish Public.” Amhlaoibh Ó Súilleabháin mentions on January 7, 1828 that at a wedding of his nephew Seamus Costigan, time was spent “ag ithe, ag ol scailtin agus tae, ag gabhail amhrain Ghaelacha.” Scailtín, or “scalteen,” was already considered old-fashioned in 1864, when Chambers’ Book of Days claimed “a good scaltheen-maker was a man of considerable repute and request in the district he inhabited.” Served scalding hot, its secrets had been passed down to said maker from an employee of Dublin’s infamous Hellfire Club: “In due time, however, the Hell-Fire Club began to show signs of breaking up. Several of the prominent members died, and those who survived them were either dying or on the borders of insanity from the terrible after-effects of scalteen” (Limerick Leader, 09 January 1926).
“…he found a parcel of women, whom he believed to be improper persons, drinking scalteen and eating pigs’ feet.”
Freemans Journal, 24 December 1839
“…he found a parcel of women, whom he believed to be improper persons, drinking scalteen and eating pigs’ feet.” – Freemans Journal, 24 December 1839
Diarmaid Ó Muirithe reprints a recipe from a Tipperary man in Words We Don’t Use (Much Anymore): “Add half a bottle of whiskey, two whisked eggs and a lump of butter to a pint and a half of strained beef broth to which salt and black pepper has been added. Heat the mixture well but do not boil.” He mentions German nobleman Heinrich von Puckler-Muskaü’s first encounter with the stuff in 1822, after which he “was licked awake in the morning by some foxhounds.”
Don’t you be late when you sit to the supper, man, Drinking scalteen from the Friar of Margy; Bring us a colleen vig home on the crupper, man, Back to the weddin’ of Donnel Delargey
My favorite quote on this drink is attributed to Malachi Horan Remembers, a 1945 memoir of a Tallaght farmer recoded by Dr. George A. Little, who says “scalteen would make a corpse walk.” Dr. Little, who defines scailtin as “little burning one,” recalls his recipe including half a pint of whiskey, half a pound of butter and six eggs, and in a 1960 article in the Irish Press refers readers to another recipe from Dr. P. W. Joyce: boiling “a mixture of whiskey, water, sugar, butter, and pepper (or caraway seeds) in a pot.” A third recipe is related from a civil law case (McGoraham v Maguire 1827) in which scailtin was defined as a “mixture of sugar, water and whiskey, boiled; and you can make it two ways strong and weak.” This was confirmed (as “whiskey, sugar, fresh butter, carraway seeds”) when the same case was mentioned in the Ulster Herald, 23 July 1848, who said “the popularity of this seductive “tipple” threatened for a time to send ginsling and sherry cobler to the occident.” Dr. Little finally returns to Malachi Horan, and a meeting between him and Douglas Hyde, to which Horan warned, “be near your bed, sir, when you take it – troth you may never reach it if you wait.” When describing hot drinks made “a couple of hundred years ago” in the Evening Herald in 1965 the makeup was a “a blend of hot milk, butter, sugar and whiskey, flavoured with cinnamon or cloves; this could be potent as well as pleasant, especially when the whiskey was the product of someone’s homework.”
In Irish Country Cooking, Malachi McCormick calls it “scoleen” or “scaillin,” taking the Dineen’s Dictionary definition as “a tansy, a mixture of boiled whiskey, butter, sugar, and hot milk, as a cure for a cold in the chest; rum often takes the place of whiskey.”
However, the name of the drink serves a dual purpose. When searching through the National Folklore Collection, as well as several local papers, sgailtín, stailtín or scáiltín is also the name for a very different kind of food entirely, one similar to leithe bán. Boiled milk or buttermilk was combined with oatmeal, and also consumed hot with butter and sugar, but the addition of eggs or spirits was mentioned only a handful of times. The only other source that used this word to describe milk and oatmeal eaten in the same way (for a cold specifically) was one article in the Tuam Herald that described the memories of Nóra Ní Ogáin of Moylough in 1995. It warrants further investigation to discover how and when this word was applied to either mixture, and oatmeal’s part in its makeup. Also of note, “scailtín fíona” is a term for mulled wine.
Recipes
The foods described as sgailtín in the NFC follow a common recipe: buttermilk is boiled, then oatmeal added and simmered for a few hours. To serve, butter and sugar to taste on a plate – no consistent quantities are offered for the most part.
A straightforward recipe from Myrtle Allen for the alcoholic version calls for blending one to two teaspoons of honey with two tablespoons (one ounce) of Irish whiskey, and stirring it into ½ cup of hot milk. McCormick offers a similar one, heating (but not boiling) ¾ cup milk, then adding ½ tablespoon butter, 1 tablespoon honey and grated nutmeg before slowly adding 4 tablespoons of Irish whiskey and serving.
Here’s another from The Complete Irish Pub Cookbook, which makes two servings: pour ½ cup Irish whiskey and two cups whole milk into a saucepan, stir in one to two tablespoons of honey, ⅛ teaspoon of ginger and ⅛ teaspoon of cinnamon, whisk over low heat, and serve in heated mugs topped with grated nutmeg and a pat of butter.
cleite agus cnámh 