Eton mess as more traditional. A similar dessert is Lancing mess (which uses bananas), served throughout the year at Lancing College in West Sussex, England. The word "mess" may refer to the appearance of the dish, or may be used in the sense of "a quantity of food", particularly "a prepared dish of soft food" or "a mixture of ingredients cooked or eaten together". Eton mess Eton mess is a traditional English dessert consisting of a mixture of strawberries, broken meringue, and whipped double cream. First mentioned in print in 1893, it is commonly believed to originate from Eton College and is
Whipped cream recipes in the writings of Cristoforo di Messisbugo (Ferrara, 1549), Bartolomeo Scappi (Rome, 1570), and Lancelot de Casteau (Liège, 1604). It was called milk or cream snow ("neve di latte", "neige de lait", "neige de crème"). A 1545 English recipe, "A Dyschefull of Snow", includes whipped egg whites as well, and is flavored with rosewater and sugar. ("cf." snow cream) In these recipes, and until the end of the 19th century, naturally separated cream is whipped, typically with willow or rush branches, and the resulting foam on the surface would from time to time be skimmed off and drained, a