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Then strain it out into a Possnet through a fitting strainer; and if you judge it too thick of the Oat-meal for sufficient boiling, add more milk to it. About an hours boiling is sufficient, by which time it should be grown pretty thick.
A while after, take a good lump of Houshold-bread, bigger than your fist, crust and crum, broil it upon a Gridiron, that it be throughly rosted; scrape off the black burning on the on side; then soak it throughly in Vinegar, and put this lump of tost into your possnet to stew with it; which you take out and throw away after a while.
To this quantity put as much Smallage as you buy for a peny, which maketh it strong of the Herb, and very green. Chop the smallage exceeding small, and put it in a good half hour before you are to take your possnet from the fire. You are to season your Gruel with a little salt, at the due time; and you may put in a little Nutmeg and Mace to it.
Scrape well three or four good large roots, cleansing well their outside, and cutting off as much of the little end as is Fibrous, and of the great end as is hard. Put them into a possnet or pot, with about a quart of Milk upon them, or as much as will cover them in boiling, which do moderately, till you find they are very tender.
Boil two wine-quarts of Sweet-cream in a Possnet; when it hath boiled a little, take it from the fire, and beat the yolks of nine or ten fresh Eggs, and the whites of four with it, beginning with two or three spoonfuls, and adding more till all be incorporated; then set it over the fire, to recover a good degree of heat, but not so much as to boil; and always stir it one way, least you break the consistence.
Stir them very well together; then set them on the fire again, till it grow-red, stirring it all the while; then put to it a ladleful of the liquor of the pot, and let them stew a while together to incorporate, stirring it always. Then pour this to the whole substance in the Possnet, to Incorporate with all the liquor, and so let them stew a while together.
The quantity must be more or less, as you desire it thicker or thinner, which after once tryal, you will easily know how to proportion out. The chief care must be, that the Rice or Barley be well homogeneated with the Milk. To a possnet full of two or three quarts of water put about half a Porrenger full of Oat-meal, before it is beaten; for after beating it appeareth more.
In the inventory of the estate of Robert Daniel, of Cambridge, in 1655, we learn that "a Little Porsenett" of his was worth five shillings. In 1693 Governor Caleb Carr, of Providence, bequeathed to his wife a "silver possnet & the cover belonging to it." By these records we see that posnets were of various metals, and sometimes had covers.
Put the Woodden-dish thus filled and tyed up into a great Possnet or little Kettle of boiling water. The faster it boils, the better it will be. The dish will turn and rowl up and down in the water, as it gallopeth in boiling. An hours boiling is sufficient.
A similar vessel, frequently handleless, was what was spelt, in various colonial documents, posned, possnet, posnett, porsnet, pocneit, posnert, possenette, postnett, and parsnett. It is derived from the Welsh posned, a porringer or little dish. In 1641 Edward Skinner left a "Postnett" by will; this was apparently of pewter. In 1653 Governor Haynes, of Hartford, left an "Iron Posnet" by will.
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