👉 Okay, letās tackle this wonderfully dramaticsounding mouthful of a phrase - "The Maiden's Tears." Now, before you immediately conjure up visions of heartbroken woodland spirits weeping into dew drops, let me assure you, the reality is ratherā¦beige.
Basically, in the culinary underworld (specifically, in old British and somewhat stuffy French wet taverns of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries), a āThe Maiden's Tears" was a very specific, and frankly rather alarming, kind of sherry trifle. Hereās what went into it: Essentially, they were layering a sickly sweet sherry custard over a mouldering, frankly depressing, plum pudding that had beenā¦aged. It wasn't exactly a youthful confection! The name came from the supposed pale, almost translucent colour of that sherry custardāit looked as if a very disappointed young woman was indeed, lamenting something. The sherry itself was often a rather low-grade stuff, kept in the cellar for years and whatever had happened to it during that time was best not questioned by the people who were eating it. People would describe the taste of this trifle with such words as "wooing,ā or itād be said to have āthe sigh of regret.ā There is a rumour that, originally, the name was meant to mock the very poor and, in doing so, bring about their own demise. Now. Let's
