13th Century Lemon Syrup - 2025

 13th Century Lemon Syrup

A PDF of this post can be found on my Academia page.

1) Introduction:

This is a revisit of a syrup that I have made many times. It is based on a recipe from the Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook. Oddly enough, the Cookbook doesn’t give any suggestions for using this syrup. Nor is this syrup mentioned anywhere else in the cookbook, but you most certainly can dilute it in hot or cold water and make lemonade. I have poured this over pound cake (poke some holes in the top of the cake, first), and it is a good glaze to apply on grilled chicken, or just spooned into hot tea.

This particular project, and documentation, was started the week before War Practice, which was not an impossible task as no fermentation was required. (Post War Practice note: I brought everything I needed for the competition, except for the syrup.)

 

2) Technical documentation of the project for people who don’t like reading 100 pages before finding the ingredient list.

2 pounds of lemons.
1/2 pound of sugar, muscovado was used for this project but any sugar can be used.
1 pint of water

Zest all of the lemons before juicing them into a measuring cup. Add in enough water to make sure that the liquid is a total of one cup in volume. Combine with the sugar and zest in a pot and bring to a boil. Then reduce the heat to a simmer and let it cook down for about an hour, stirring often. Just a warning: molten sugar is kitchen napalm; do not let it over heat as it will make a big mess. Also, do not continue to boil the liquid unless you wish to make lemon candy.

Reduce the liquid by half, then turn off the heat. Let cool before straining out the zest and moving the liquid to a container.

13th Century Lemon Syrup

An attractive beverage of the modern era is lemonade; sweet and tart, served ice cold, quenches one’s thirst on the hottest of days. But, lemonade has a history that dates back centuries and is easy to make. The Moorish cookbook, “The Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook”, list many syrups (or sharabs] that were used as ingredients for other dishes and sauces, but were also intended to be mixed with water and served as drinks. This project is based on the following recipe:

Syrup of Lemon
Take lemon, after peeling off the skin, press it [to a pulp] and take a ratl of juice, and add as much of sugar. Cook it until it takes the form of a syrup. Its advantages are for the heat of bile; it cuts the thirst and binds the bowels.[1]

 ===============

 The redaction from Rowan Houndskeeper

SYRUP OF LEMON = LEMONADE
Redaction:
2 c lemon juice (either purchased or fresh squeezed from ~12 large lemons)
2 c sugar
2 c water

Boil sugar, lemon juice, and water together in an adequately sized pot for ~15 minutes to obtain a thin syrup. This syrup should be diluted 1:2 with cold water to form lemonade. The original recipe doesn’t mention if this drink is served hot or cold. Served undiluted as a warm syrup it is actually quite tasty as a hot, refreshing alternative to herbal teas. Dilute it as directed above and you have period lemonade. Although dilution is not mentioned in the original recipe, most of the other herb or fruit syrup drinks in the same source do mention diluting with water. Therefore this is a reasonable interpretation of the original recipe. If there is any question about how “modern” this recipe is - a recipe nearly identical to the original period one can be found in The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook (1989) on p. 470.

===============

My method for this project:

The original recipe called for a ratl of lemon juice and the same amount of sugar. A ratl is between 400g and 470g depending on the source.[2] Martin Levey tells us that one ratl is equivalent to 406.25g, with the following caveat: “The weights mentioned in the text are those of ninth-century Baghdad....Very little is known of the exact weights of the units in most periods and most areas of the medieval Islamic world. The above values must, therefore, be considered uncertain subject to further research.”[3]

The actual amount does not matter; as long as the juice and the sugar are of equal weights.
2 pounds of lemons.
1/2 pound of muscovado sugar.
1 pint water

I zested[4] the lemons, cut them in half and squeezed the juice from them. This gave me just under 1 cup of lemon juice. I topped off the measuring cup with extra water bringing up the volume to 1 cup, or a half a pint. Since a pint’s a pound the world round,[5] we can maintain the equal weight ratio of the original recipe. I used whatever brand of lemons I found at my local grocery store; I did not have a choice between varieties or region, since I started this project at the beginning of May. I moved the zest and juice into a sauce pot and added the sugar.

I brought the mixture up to a boil to dissolve all of the sugar, then I dropped the heat down to a simmer and let the mixture reduce down by half, which took about 45 minutes. Once the mixture had reduced, I took the pot off of the heat and let it cool down.

Once cool, I strained the zest out and moved the syrup to a container and parked in the ‘fridge.

Water

I used tap water run through a Pur filter. The water from my tap is good, but I wanted to make sure that no funky flavors made their way into my syrup.

Sugar

I used muscovado, or un-refined sugar, because I feel that it is very close to the common sugar that was used in the time period.[6] Muscovado sugar, unlike the hard cones of piloncillo sugar, is still soft and scoopable. This means that I can easily measure out the amount of sugar that I need without resorting to a box grater. Period inventories and shopping lists mention sugar loaves as well as references to “sugre blanche”, “white sugar” or “candy sugar”. Which indicates that there was a difference between the varieties of sugar. Furthermore, The Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook uses the word “sugar” in most of its recipes but calls for other varieties of sugar in some: “good white sugar”,[7] “lump white sugar”,[8] “white sugar”,[9] “pounded white sugar”,[10] “white manna of sugarcane”[11] and “Sulaimani sugar”[12]

Balducci Pegolotti, an early 14th century Floretine trader, listed various types of sugar in his hand book...five kinds of loaf sugar, in order of quality: mucchera, cafetino, bambillonia, musciatto and dommaschino. The colour and cost of the loaves varied widely. A sugar loaf looks a little like a bomb. [13]

 

The Arabic sources from medieval times describe raw sugar as red (sukkar ahmar) rather than brown. A cone-shaped loaf of sugar, also called an ubluj, typically had a white upper section and a red or dark lower point. Tricks...were clearly employed by the sugar merchants to hide the red part, and present the illusion of an entire white cone.[14]

We expect our sugar to be white, uniform crystals, readily available at a moment’s notice. And while the market is offering organic, “unrefined” sugar (turbinado, cane crystals, raw sugar) it is still processed and packaged to be easily scooped and measured.

Sugar itself was exported in solid conical loaves of various sizes, since a cone-shaped mould was in standard use wherever sugar was refined. We tend to think of sugar as a pure, white and unvarying substance, but the difficulty and expense of refining meant that until the mid 19th century there were many more grades of sugar than today, and that a batch or loaf of sugar was by no means always white - and if it looked white on the outside, it may have been brown within. [15]

Muscovado[16] is un-refined, crystallized, sugar-cane juice, loaded with molasses. This is not the same as modern brown sugar which is processed, refined, white-sugar mixed with molasses; processed so that it can be easily spooned out.

Lemons

I purchased a bag of small lemons from my local store. The bag did not list a country of origin, but each lemon had a sticker labeled: Sunkist - 4033 - USA. I will assume that they are the Mayer variety grown in Florida.[17] I am disappointed that Wegman’s did not list more information on the bag, like they do for grapes and other bagged produce. I do not know what variety of lemons would have been available in 13th Century Spain, but it certainly wasn’t the Meyer variety, which was “invented” in 1908 by cultivator Frank Meyer who bred them from Chinese varieties he had imported.[18] I do not know what varieties of lemons would have existed in the 13th Century, but it really doesn’t matter; I was only able to secure one variety of lemon and did not have the time to hunt down other varieties. But, what do we know about lemons from the time period of the Cookbook? Did the author only know of one variety of lemon? Were they new to the region? Was this recipe a novel one or would the readers have been familiar with lemons?

According to Dr. Dafna Langgut, of the Tel Aviv University, lemons, sour oranges, limes and pomelos were introduced to the West by Muslim traders via Sicily and the Iberian Peninsula in the 10th century AD. “It is clear that Muslim traders played a crucial role in the dispersal of cultivated citrus in Northern Africa and Southern Europe,” Dr. Langgut said. “It’s also evident because the common names of many of the citrus types were derived from Arabic, following an earlier diversification in Southeast Asia. Muslims controlled extensive territory and commerce routes from India to the Mediterranean.”[19]

In 13th century Arabo-Andalusian cookery, added sourness in dishes was achieved by the use of sour apples, citron or pomegranates, in addition to that of vinegar and verjuice. In Christian Europe, recipes with lemon juice, of Arabic origin, were called Limonia (or limonea in the Sent Sovi) and they are found in the Liber de Coquina, the Anonimo Toscano, the Anonimo Veneziano and the Modus. Recipes with pomegranate were called Romania (Liber de Coquina, Anonimo Toscano, Modus). The Libre del Coch also uses lemon and orange juice for sauces. Candied lemon was used in Arabo-Andalusian cookery, and was found again at the end of the 16th century in Lancelot de Casteau. The Viandier de Taillevent (printed edition) has a recipe for blancmange with pomegranates. .. Initially citrus fruits were valued and cultivated for their healing and medicinal properties, their intense fragrance, and their ornamental flowers. In the 4th century BC, the citron was recorded as being cultivated in Persia and the Middle East, while the first lemons appeared in Rome around the 1st century AD (the citron being known during ancient Roman times as the Persian Pomo). Although, it’s known that lemons were grown at Pompeii earlier, as they feature in one of its famous wall frescoes dating to 79 BC. However, the first of the truly sweet citrus – oranges, only arrived in Italy from China in the mid-17th century.[20]

It would appear that the Andalusians would had had three centuries to cultivate and experiment with lemons, and while the Meyers that I used might have been sweeter than what was commonly available, I think that they would have been recognized as lemons and used in the same fashion as the locally grown varieties.

Stove and pot.

As to the cooking hardware, I used my electric stove top, a one quart stainless steel pot and a silicone slotted spoon. In the 13th Century, cooks would have used a ceramic, copper, or lead pot to cook in and would have placed the pot into hot coals, over a fire or on a hearth next to a fire. I prefer to cook using electricity because I can control it completely. And I don’t like open fire in my house. For this beverage I don’t think there would be any difference between fire and electricity other than there would be no smoke, ash, or particulate matter in my beverage, where, depending on the ventilation, there might be if I did this outside on my grill. Also, I used the pot that I had; stainless steel. The metal is non-reactive, but so is ceramic. Copper ions can leach out into acidic solutions and cause copperiedus[21] over time and I do not have to explain why using lead cookware is a bad thing. The 13th Century cooks did not have access to silicone, but I used a high-heat spatula because it is non-reactive and much easier to clean than wood. This is an occasion where the use of modern cookware is preferred to period cookware: safer to use; easier to clean; and doesn’t add or take away anything good that period equipment would possess.

 

Procedure.

Before I started, I gathered my hardware and cleaned everything. Then I scrubbed the edible wax from the lemons using running water and a green scrubby-pad.[22] I used a modern “ribbon” style zester instead of a micro plane as I wanted to be able to strain out all of the zest. I could have used a knife, which is what would have been done before the invention of zesting tools, but the lemons were slippery and I did not want to slice the rinds and then scrape the pith from them: all I wanted was the zest.... And all of my fingers intact. I had also intended to save the zest and hope that it turned into candied lemon peel, which I could use for a future project. With the two pounds on lemon, I ended up with a bit under 1 cup of very loosely packed zest, which turned into about two tablespoons at the end of the project.

Once I had zested all of the lemons, I sliced them in half and juiced them by hand. I didn’t worry about the seeds as I was going to pour the juice through a stainer. The amount of juice I got from the lemons was just under one cup. I had planned for a full pint of juice to go with the full pound of sugar, but I decided to reduce my project’s scope: I felt that working with a cup of juice and of sugar was more manageable than running out to the store and buying another two pounds of lemons.

  

 

   

 I weighed out one half pound of sugar using a kitchen scale and added it to my pot, along with the zest and the juice, poured through a strainer, as mentioned before. I brought the mixture to a boil and held it there until the sugar dissolved. Then I reduced the heat to a quiet simmer and cooked the mixture until volume reduced down to a thin syrup. I used the “back of the spoon” test. This reduction took about 45 minutes, with me adjusting the heat and stirring often. I strained the syrup through a metal sieve, pouring clean water over the zest to get most of the syrup, and poured the syrup into a bottle to cool. I ended up with 350ml[23] of syrup which was a bit thinner than what I was working for, but I did not want to cook the syrup any further and risk burning the sugar. What I had would be fine for a one week project.

While the recipe does not call for the syrup to be diluted, as I quoted from Rowan Houndskeeper, other recipes in the same section of the text do call for dilution with water: “The drink is made with two ûqiyas of syrup to three ûqiyas of hot water”;[24] “The drink is an ûqiya with two of hot water”;[25] “Drink an ûqiya and a half of this with three of water”.[26] I know from experience with this recipe, and other syrups from the Cookbook that the hot syrup is rather harsh and that it would need to cool down, overnight, to let the sweet and sour flavors meld.

Observations:

The recipe does not indicate whether to drink this hot or cold. It is very refreshing when cold, but I did sample it while it was still hot. At temperature, the smell and taste of lemons is almost over powering; it reminded me of a liquid cough drop, which was telling as, when I first made this beverage, many years ago, I did have a scratchy throat, due to the weather. The hot syrup did ease my throat pain almost immediately. This should not be surprising as hot lemon tea and honey is still recommended for sore throats, and the 1918 edition of The Dispensatory of the United States of America does list a very similar recipe for “syrup of lemon”.[27]

“Lemon Peel, in thin slices or grated, 20 grammes; Alcohol (90 per cent.), a sufficient quantity; Lemon Juice, 500 millilitres; Refined Sugar, 760 grammes. Macerate the Lemon Peel in thirty millilitres of the Alcohol for seven days; press; filter; add sufficient of the Alcohol to produce forty millilitres. In the Lemon Juice, clarified by subsidence or filtration, dissolve the Refined Sugar by the aid of gentle heat; cool; add the forty millilitres of alcoholic liquid; mix.” Br.[28]

Due to the molasses in the sugar, lemonade made from this syrup is much darker than modern lemonade, which is made from refined sugar, it also, I feel, has a much richer flavor. I also feel that this syrup can be used to cover a cake or over chicken, as a marinade, although the cookbook does not mention this syrup as an ingredient for other recipes. Further experimentation is necessary.

Due to the nature of these syrups, the actual ratio of syrup to water are user dependant. This syrup is not like a modern lemonade mix, which is formulated to be pleasant to a majority of pallets. The strong lemon and molasses flavors can be over powering if not diluted enough. My recommendation is to use a little of the syrup and dilute with water, taste, and then add more syrup or water as needed. Perhaps start with one quarter teaspoon of syrup to a full cup of water.


   

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

American Friends of Tel Aviv University. “Citrus fruits were the clear status symbols of the nobility in the ancient Mediterranean.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 18 August 2017. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/08/170818092100.htm>.

Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook. Kitab al tabikh fi-l-Maghrib wa-l-Andalus fi `asr al-Muwahhidin, li-mu’allif majhul. The Book of Cooking in Maghreb and Andalus in the era of Almohads, by an unknown author: 13th Century Al-Andalus Cookbook. translation is by Charles Perry and others

Cooperson, Michael; Perry, Charles; Toorawa, Shawkat M. “Scents and Flavors: a Syrian Cookbook.” New York University Press. New York. 2017.

Davidson, Linda Kay; Gitlitz, David M. A Drizzle of Honey: The Life and Recipes of Spain’s Secret Jews. Macmillan. 2000

Did You Know It’s Period? - Modern Medieval Food. THL Rowan Houndskeeper. Stefan’s Florilegium: DYKIP-Food-art - 5/29/09

Galloway, J. H. The Sugar Cane Industry: An Historical Geography from Its Origins to 1914. Cambridge University Press. 2005

gardenhistorygirl. “The ‘juicy’ Tale of the Renaissance Citron.” Gardenhistorygirl, 27 Apr. 2022, https://www.gardenhistorygirl.co.uk/post/the-juicy-tale-of-the-renaissance-citron.

Goldstein, Darra. “The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets.” Oxford University Press, 2015.

McGee, Harold. On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen. Simon and Schuster, 2007.

The Medical Formulary, or Aqrabadhin of Al-kindi. Translated with a study of its materia medica by Martin Levey. University of Wisconsin Press. Madison, WI. 1966.

Meri, Josef W. “Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia, Volume 1” Psychology Press, 2006

Meyer, F. G.; Trueblood, E.E.; Heller ,J. L. , editors. The Great Herbal of Leonard Fuchs. 1542 edition. Stanford University Press, Palo Alto. CA. 1999.

“Muscovado, N.” Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford UP, September 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1357600444.

“Oldcook : Fruits in Medieval Europe.” Oldcook, https://www.oldcook.com/en/medieval-fruit. Accessed 5 May 2025.

Richardson, Tim. Sweets: A History of Candy. Bloomsbury Publishing. 2008

Roberts, Teresa. Did You Know It’s Period? Modern Medieval Food by HL Rowan Houndskeeper. Stephen’s Flogiorun. 2008

Ruas, Marie-Pierre, et al. “Citrus Fruit in Historical France: Written Sources, Iconographic and Plant Remains”. AGRUMED: Archaeology and History of Citrus Fruit in the Mediterranean, edited by Véronique Zech-Matterne and Girolamo Fiorentino, Publications du Centre Jean Bérard, 2017, https://doi.org/10.4000/books.pcjb.2243.

Sato, Tsugitaka. Sugar in the Social Life of Medieval Islam. Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands 2014

ScienceDaily. “Citrus Fruits Were the Clear Status Symbols of the Nobility in the Ancient Mediterranean.” ScienceDaily, 18 Aug. 2017, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/08/170818092100.htm.

Serjeant, R. B.; Bidwell, R. L. Arabian Studies. Cambridge University Press. 2005

Toussaint-Samat, Maguelonne. History of Food. Translated from the French bu Anthea Bell. Barnes & Noble Books. 1992.

University of Florida. “Meyer Lemon – Gardening Solutions.” UF/IFAS Center for Land Use Efficiency, https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/plants/edibles/fruits/meyer-lemon/. Accessed 6 May 2025.

Vaughan, J. G.; Geissler, C. The New Oxford Book of Food Plants. Oxford University Press, Oxford. 1997.

Weiss Adamson, Melitta. Food in Medieval Times. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004.

Wood, George Bacon; Bache, Franklin; Remington, Joseph Price; Sadtler, Samuel Philip. The Dispensatory of the United States of America. Grigg & Elliot. Philadelphia. 1918.

Zaouali, Lilia. “Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World: A Concise History with 174 Recipes” Univ of California Press, Sep 14, 2009

 

[1] Andalusian Cookbook, p18
[2] Perry and Serjeant/Bidwell, respectively
[3] The Medical Formulary, or Aqrabadhin of Al-kindi, p25
[4] Using a modern zesting tool, I did not want to risk using a knife.
[5] At least it is here on planet Earth.
[6] 13th century Spain.
[7] Recipe for Zrbja
[8] Making of Elegant Isfunja
[9] Recipe for Jullbiyya, a Dish with Julep
[10] White Fldhaja With Milk
[11] Syrup of Sandalwood
[12] Another Like It, a Summer Dish that Cools the Body
[13] Richardson, p101-2
[14] Sato, p69
[15] Richardson, p101
[16] Muscovado is derived from a corruption of Portuguese “açúcar mascavado” (unrefined sugar) or the Spanish “mascabado” - (sugar) of lowest quality: EOD.
[17] Based on Sunkist’s website, and from reports of bad harvests in Texas and California.
[18] University of Florida
[19] ScienceDaily, quoting Dafna Langgut. The Citrus Route Revealed: From Southeast Asia into the Mediterranean. HortScience, 2017; 52 (6): 814 DOI: 10.21273/HORTSCI11023-16
[20] GardenhistoryGirl
[21] Copper toxicity
[22] Also not found in period, but our 13th Century cooks didn’t have to deal with edible wax and fruit stickers.
[23] Yes, I’m throwing in a metric measurement. I took the picture with the metric gauge facing me.
[24] p13,The Little Drink of Roots: Way of Making It
[25] p13, Syrup of Aloe Wood: Way of Making It
[26] p16, Syrup of Dried Roses
[27] Only mixed with alcohol.
[28] p147

Sir William Paston's Meathe

Sir William Paston's Meathe from Digby.

Take ten Gallons of Spring-water, and put therein ten Pints of the best honey. Let this boil half an hour, and scum it very well; then put in one handful of Rosemary, and as much of Bay-leaves; with a little Limon-peel. Boil this half an hour longer, then take it off the fire, and put it into a clean Tub; and when it is cool, work it up with yest, as you do Beer. When it is wrought, put it into your vessel, and stop it very close. Within three days you may Bottle it, and in ten days after it will be fit to drink. [p42]

My quick and dirty redaction:

2 gallons of spring water.
2 pints of honey
Big pinch of rosemary, fresh of dried.
3 bay leaves, dried.
1 ounce of bitter lemon peel.

Boil the rosemary, bay leaves and lemon peel in a quart of water for 30 minutes.
Dissolve the honey in 1 gallon of water and simmer, skimming the scum off of the surface. Move to the fermenter when clear. No need to boil if you use pasturized honey.
Strain the leaves and stems out of the "tea" and add the water to the fermenter.
Add in the rest of the water to the fermenter to cool the must.
Pitch in ale yeast when cool.
Let ferment for a week, bottle when it's as strong as you wish.

The Closet Of Sir Kenelm Digby Knight Opened

Cinnamon water 2020 and 2022

This was a cordial project made in 2020 for an event that canceled, and made a 2nd time in 2022 when the event finally took place. It tied for 3rd place.

============================

Cinnamon water

Description:

Cordial based on an early 17th century, English recipe, from Sir Hugh Plat’s A Closet for Ladies and Gentlevvomen. This was originally intended to be entered into the Ice Dragon 2020 A&S competition, but that event was canceled. The cordial that was created for the 2020 event was kept in a bottle for the last two years. This project will be not only the 2020 cordial, but the same recipe created in 2022. Judges will be be able to contrast a “fresh” cordial with one that has had two years to mellow. The below documentation was mostly written in 2020.

Introduction:

To begin with, allow me to define what a cordial is. A cordial is a flavored alcoholic beverage, normally wine, that has been distilled,[1] mostly for medicinal purposes. The majority of cordial recipes date to the end of the SCA period but there are enough recipes that we can conclude that they were well known. Some modern cordials, such as Benedictine and Frangelico, date back to the 16th and 17th Century.[2] The theory of distilling itself dates back to the 4th Century BCE when Aristotle wrote Meteorology in which he details the specifics of the process.[3]

The earliest European records of flavored alcohols were written by a Spanish alchemist by the name of Arnold de Vila Nova. In 1240 he wrote the Boke of Wine in which he details methods for flavoring alcohol and proposed the restorative and life giving properties of these beverages. One of Arnold’s students, Raymond Lully, proclaimed that their production was “a divinely inspired gift from Heaven.”[4] Legal documents dating to 1411 mention the distillation of wine into brandy in the Armagnac region of France.[5]

Most of the surviving recipes offer cordials for medicinal use rather than recreational use, and most of these recipes are listed along side of those for liniments, surfeits, poultices, and other medicinal tonics. It is more than likely that the liqueur evolved as a sweet beverage as to counter act the bitterness of the herbs and other ingredients. But is not my intention to reproduce a modern cough syrup, nor is it to flavor vodka and pretend that it’s period. This recipe will be made from infused wine which is then distilled.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a cordial with regard to medicine, food or beverage, as “any invigorating and stimulating preparation that is intended for a medicinal purpose.” Particularly in regards to one’s health, especially for one’s heart: cordial derives from the Latin for heart: cor. Spirits, distillations of alcoholic beverages (wine and ale) were considered to be good for one’s health all on their own. Whiskey (or whisky) is derived from the Gaelic uisge beatha, or “water of life”: aqua vitae, in Latin.[6] Medieval doctors and alchemists claimed that it could: preserve youth; improve memory; treat diseases of the brain, nerves and joints; revive the heart; calm toothache; cure blindness, speech defects and paralysis and even protect against the plague.[7] By added additional things, the spirit of alcohol would enhance the medicinal properties of those ingredients.

In a re-enactment context, the evidence suggests that royalty or high nobility could avail themselves of various distilled medicines, mostly through having someone in camp/ their home castle carrying out such distillations. It is still very unclear how much the production of distilled medicines spread down through the social scale. I can imagine that if the King in the 1450’s has it being done for him, at the least the earls and similar will have their own before long. It is clear too by the last decade or two of the 15th century that distilled medicines were widely available in northern Europe, with various illustrations from that time, added to books such as Heironymous Braunschweig’s “Book of Distillation” in the early 16th century, indicating that medical men knew of and used it’s products.

But to return to the opaque area, it is unclear to me at the moment how these remedies fitted in with the wider medical realm and the public at large, in England of the 1440’s- 1490’s. It might be possible to dig up more from MS and more obscure papers, but for comparison, the early 1440’s “A leechbook or collection of medical recipes of the fifteenth century” by Warren R. Dawson, has nothing about distilled medicines, and neither are there any modern additions to the copy of Gilbertus Anglicus pharmaceutical writings, made around 1460 or so. Of course there would be a certain amount of innate conservatism in the official medical profession, but also it takes time for knowledge to spread and become accepted. Clearly some texts were being copied and translated, such as the aforementioned Lily of medicine and the Book of the fifth essence” by John of Rupescissa, which was translated into English in the 1460’s.[8]

The word distillation is from the Latin destillare, which means to drop or trickle down. This is in references to the end product of any distillate dripping out of a still, after it has been vaporized and then condensed back into a liquid. Medieval stills were of a low pressure variety and they had to be monitored so that they were kept at a particular temperature range. Too low and the alcohol will not vaporize. Too high and too much of the water will also vaporize.

Distillation works by taking advantage of the different boiling points of the alcohol and the water in the starting beverage. While water will start to boil at 212F, ethyl alcohol will start at around 170F. This difference in boiling points lets us boil the alcohol out of the liquid, to be condensed into another container, while leaving the water and other things behind. Mostly. Some of the water will also vaporize, even below the water’s boiling point. The higher the temperature, the more water will be vaporized and higher grades of alcohol, as well as esters, present in the starting liquid, will be extracted. In addition, alcohol and water soluble oils and flavors will also be extracted. Some sugar, for instance, will end up in the distillate container as it tags along with the water vapor. It is this process that makes a cordial different than putting herbs and spices into a spirit. The process of distillation cooks the ingredients and produces a better product.

In my mind, using a double, or a triple, distilled vodka will not give one the same end result. First of all, vodkas made in the SCA time period were made from wheat. Not a good substitute for wine. Secondly, the lack of the wine’s sugar, esters, and flavors, that get carried along during the distillation, gives a completely different product.

Details of the original recipe:

Cinnamon water

Take one pound of the best Cynnamon you can get, bruse it well, and put it into a gallon of the best sacke, and infuse it three daies and three nights, and then distill it as your Aqua coelestis (previous recipe).[9]

Modern translation:

Cinnamon water

Take one pound of the best cinnamon you can get, and crush it well, and put it into a gallon of the best sweet cream sherry. Allow to sit, in the sherry, for three days. Then pour the sherry, along with the cinnamon, into your still and begin the distillation process.

Now, the previous recipe does not give any instructions on the distillation. “...and then distill it in your Limbeck, and when it is destilled, you must hang halfe an ouce of yellow Sanders and twentie graines of Muske and amber in it.[10] So, are we supposed to add yellow sanders and musk into our cinnamon water? If so, why doesn’t this recipe list musk and amber[11] as ingredients? Plat, like many of his contemporaries, was very terse in his instruction. I neither have yellow sanders nor musk to use, so I will omit them from my project. Plat doesn’t give any instructions, in this book, on how to distill a liquid. I will assume that if you have a still, you would know how to use it. He does have instruction in Delights for Ladies, which I will quote later in this paper.

Redaction for this project:

1 gallon of Spanish, cream sherry; Barbadillo brand
About 8 ounces of organic, Saigon cinnamon sticks

For both the 2020 and 2022 projects, I followed the exact same procedure, even using the same jar of cinnamon.[12] I broke up the cinnamon sticks (7 sticks) and inserted them into the sherry bottle and the re-sealed the bottle for three days. After three days, I poured the sherry and cinnamon into my “still” and distilled it. The distilled liquid was moved into a new bottle and sealed.

Technique:

I will start with the easiest ingredient first: the cinnamon. While the original recipe called for a full pound on cinnamon, I am willing to bet that the sticks I used, which were vacuumed packed and shipped around the world in a fraction of the time that Sir Hugh could ever have received his, are an order of magnitude more potent that was available in 17th century England. Cinnamon, in Sir Hugh’s time, was packed in a barrel, crate or a canvas sack and stored in the hold of a wooden, sail-powered ship, which had to sail around the cape of South Africa, or was carried by horses or camels across the silk road, in order to reach a port that could ship them to England. My cinnamon was shipped by a modern cargo freighter, from Saigon to the ports of California, and then shipped to me via 2nd day air service.

When I opened the container, I was almost overpowered by the aroma of sweet cinnamon. Thus I chose to use only seven sticks (about 8 ounces) instead of a full pound. I broke up the sticks into chunks to increase their surface area; allowing the sherry greater access to the spice.

I do not know where Sir Hugh got his cinnamon from; I doubt that he knew himself. He certainly never mentioned any particular location in any of his cookbooks. I chose to use Saigon cinnamon because I like the sweet taste of the region and the brand, I that ordered, was USDA certified organic, which not only means that the trees were grown without the use of pesticides or chemicals, but that it is certified to be Cinnamon loureiroi, and not bark from any other tree.

As to the second ingredient, I did have to purchase the sherry as I did not have the time to make my own. The original recipe called for sack, which in Sir Hugh’s time, meant sweet sherry. While Sir Hugh never uses the word sherry, in A Closet for Ladies and Gentlevvomen, he does use it in context in his Delightes for Ladies:[13]

Take the finest paper you can get, or else some Virgin parchment, straine it very right & stiffe over the glasse bodie, wherein you put your sack, malmsie or muskadine, oile the paper or virgin parchment with a pensill moistned in the oyle of Ben, and distil it in the Balneo with a gentle fire, and by this meanes you shall purchase onely the true spirit of wine. You shall not have above two or three ounces at the most out of a gallon of wine, which ascendeth in the forme of a cloude, without any dewe or veines in the helme, lute all the joints well in this distillation. This spirit will vanish in the ayre, if the glass stand open.

How to make the ordinarie spirit of wine, that is solde for five shillings & a noble, a pinte - Put sacke, malmsie, or muskadine into a glasse body, leaving one third or more of your glasse empty, set it in balneo, or in a pan of ashes, keeping a soft and gentle fire, draw no longer then till all or most part will burne away, which you may prove now and then, by setting a spoonefull thereof on fire with a paper as it droppeth from the nose or pipe of the helme, and if your spirit thus drawn have any phlegme therin, the rectifie or redistil that spirit againe in a lesser body, or in a bolt receiver insted of another body, luting a small head on the top of the steele thereof, and so you shall have a verie strong spirit, or else for more expedition, distill five or sixe gallons of wine by a Lymbecke; and that spirit, which ascendeth afterward, redistill in a glasse as before.[14]

Malmsey and muskadine[15] are both sweet wines, and the English had a taste for sweet, foreign wines[16] and they had grown fond of sherry since the marriage of Herny VIII and Catharine of Aragon. It is possible that the English started calling sherry “sack” for two reasons: they were already familiar with a sweet, alcoholic beverage called sack mead; and the casks of sherry (from Xeres or Jerez, Spain) might have been labeled “seco” or “for export”.

The alternative spellings sack and seck appear at random in early documents, but it seems reasonable to say it has nothing to do with seco, meaning, “dry”, despite the contrary view taken by the Oxford English Dictionary and the fact that some mixed sugar with the sherries-sack; nevertheless, sack was always classified as a sweet wine. The idea, though, that sack meant “dry” was firmly fixed in the minds of lexicographers; they stick to their beliefs as a matter of faith... It was even suggested that all Elizabethan “sweet” wines were dry, but that is to enter the realms of Fantasy...[17]

Whatever the reason for the name, the English loved sweet wine[18] and recommended it for medicinal recipes.

Medieval and renaissance cookery, which were popular at all levels of society, focused not so much on food matching but rather on the contrast between “cold” and “warm” foods and drinks, in order to reach a “temperate” balance. Sweet wines were considered “warm”. “Sweet” was the most popular “warm” flavour, and it was often contrasted to sour (like vinegar), considered cold. People who were recovery from an illness were advised to drink sweet, clear, red wine.[19]

Sherry is a fortified wine, that is, fortified with additional alcohol to protect it during shipping. Like port, sherry was fortified with brandy:[20] some of the wine was distilled, into brandy, and then added back into the original wine and left to age on their journey to London.

As I did not have the time to make wine, and let it age, or procure the right kind of grapes and wood to make sherry, I did purchase some commercial sherry. I picked a bottle imported from Spain, to insure that I was using the correct grapes. I had wanted to pick a variety from a winery that existed at the time of Sir Hugh’s writing (1602-09), but I did not want to spend over $100 on one ingredient of an A&S project. I was forced to buy from a winery that only dates back to 1817. While I did use cream sherry, I avoided “solera” branded bottles, as the solera method of making sherry dates back only as far as the 1780s[21]

Just a side note: Plat’s recipe “How to make the ordinarie spirit of wine, that is solde for five shillings & a noble, a pinte” would make this an expensive beverage. A noble was the first gold coin minted in Medieval England and was worth 80 pence. Or 6 shillings and 8 pence. So, this cordial could be sold for 11 shillings and 8 pence per pint. According to MeasuringWorth.com, this would be worth between $142 and $2400 in 2018 dollars.[22] These cordials were not cheap. In London, in 1609, a barrel of the best ale was sold for 3 shillings and 8 pence, and a barrel of the best beer[23] was sold for 4 shillings.[24] This works out to 3 to 3.5 pennies per gallon. Cordials were too expensive to be consumed as a social beverage.

Distillation:

To set the matter straight: distillation is illegal within the USA, and before I started this project I examined the law carefully. Article 10, Section 153 of the Special Provisions Relating To Illicit Alcoholic Beverages And Stills states the following:

Any person who shall manufacture any illicit alcoholic beverage or who, not being duly licensed as a distiller under the provisions of the alcoholic beverage control law, shall own, operate, possesses or have under his control any still or distilling apparatus is guilty of a felony. “Still” or “distilling apparatus shall mean any apparatus designed, intended, actually used, or capable of being used for or in connection with the separating of alcoholic or spirituous vapors, or alcohol or spirituous solutions, or alcohol or spirits, from alcohol or spirituous solutions or mixtures, but shall not include stills used for laboratory purposes or stills used for distilling water, oil, alcoholic or nonalcoholic materials where the cubic capacity of such stills is one gallon or less.

As I would only be distilling a gallon of wine in a non-pressurized stock pot, and that I would not be selling the product nor transporting it across state lines, I feel that this is a safe project.

As stated before, I repeated my 2020 method for the 2022 cordial, using the same equipment and steps. The only difference was that I used a different bottle to hold the cordial in, to distinguish it from the 2020 cordial. Also, there was no sampling party of the 2022 cordial, as there was the 2020 cordial. I am confident in my method and my equipment that I did not feel the need to get volunteers to taste test for me. The result of this is that there is more of the 2022 cordial to judge than the 2020 cordial.

The cinnamon was left to infuse for three days before being poured, along with the sherry, into my stock pot into which there was a brick topped with a ceramic bowl. The wine was brought to 170F,[25] the lid placed on the pot and bags of ice placed on top of the lid. This method of low-pressure distillation is often used for home perfume and oil making. The instructions came from a cooking show on how to make home-made rose water.[26]

At 170F the alcohol will boil off and rise to the top of the container, where it will condense when in contact with the cold lid and fall into the bowl, which is insulated from the heat by the brick. A turkey baster was used to transfer the cordial from the bowl into a waiting container and the ice was replaced as needed. After two and a half hours, a little more than a pint of clear liquid was distilled out of the wine, meaning that about 4/5th of the original volume was discarded in the production of this cordial. A better still might have reduced this ratio, but I used what I had available.

 

My stove is electric and I do not think that, for this dish, there would be a difference between gas, electric, or an open fire. Nor do I think that my ceramic-lined steel pot adds or takes away from any period cooking vessel. While my still uses ice instead of an external condensation tube, the end result is the same: the alcohol vapor is condensed into a container separate from the source liquid.

While the spiced sherry was almost unbearably sweet with the cinnamon flavor all but covered up, the distilled product has only a hint sweetness and a strong cinnamon taste. Unfortunately, the cinnamon doesn’t cover up the harshness of the spirit. Aging the cordial in oak might mellow out the flavor, but I am unaware of any period recipes that called for aging cordials. After two years of sitting in a glass bottle, the 2020 cordial is less harsh, but certainly cannot be considered “aged” in terms of spirits kept in wood. This is not a beverage for casual drinking, and it was not intended to be. Cordials, at this time, were considered to be medicine rather than after-dinner drinks. With the cost involved with the wine, spices, fuel and time, not to mention how little cordial one ends up with, cordials were expensive and were made when they were needed. For people who wished just to get a buzz, there were more cost effective alcoholic beverages. Sir Hugh does not provide any doses for his cinnamon water, but we can look at other cordial recipes: “...and distyllet aghen ghyf ou wolte and vse at of euer[e]ch day a lytel spone-ful fastyng.”;[27] “...and if a man haue nede, late hym take er-of morn and euyn iiii sponful at onys.”;[28] “helps digestion if two or three or four ounces thereof be drunk, and the patient composes himself to rest.”[29]

The final image is of a glass of the 2022 spiced sherry prior to distillation next to a glass of the 2020 cordial.[30] While I did not need to make another batch of cordial for Ice Dragon 2022, (I had a half a pint of the 2020 cordial just sitting on my kitchen counter) I saw an opportunity to have judges compare a newly made cordial with one that had time to sit. Few people in the SCA make actual cordials and the chance to compare old versus new cordials might not come up again for a while.[31]

Notes from 2022

 When I distilled the cordial, in 2022, I ended up with more liquid than I expected; about a half a pint more than my experience told me I should have had. I let the cordial cool for a couple of hours to see that it tasted like. I was surprised to find the 2022 cordial to be smoother and sweeter than the 2020 cordial. It still has the burn of a raw spirit, but it is certainly less harsh than the 2020 project. I did not know why: I had used the same cinnamon and the same brand of sherry. I used the same still and temperature sensor. I had set the alarm for 175F and managed the stove top’s temperature to stay within 5 degrees of that alarm. I suspected that I had brought the liquid to too high of a temperature and boiled off a lot more water than what I wanted. But, I was very careful with my temperature management.

So, with this in mind, I tested the temperature probe of my digital oven thermometer: I brought a cup of water to a rolling boil and plunged the probe into the seething liquid. The thermometer read 181F. My thermistor was a good 23 degrees off. So, when I had thought I had brought the sugary sherry up to 175F, it was actually 198F, with jumps to over 200F as I managed the heat. Since my still is closed, I was relying on the thermometer and the sound of the liquid to guide me. As the temperature rose to nearly 200F, more and more water was vaporized, along with the alcohol, and ended up in the collection bowl. And as the water vaporized, it carried along more sugar with it. The end result was a sweeter, less alcoholic cordial. The sherry I used is listed as 17% ABV; best case scenario would make my cordial around 40% ABV.[32] With the addition of an extra half a pint of mostly water, I would hazard a guess, based on experience and taste, that the 2022 cordial might be around 30% ABV. One of these days I might invest in an alcohol refractometer so that I don’t have to rely on hand waving and blind guessing. [33]

So, my plan on having a two year old cordial compared with a fresh cordial has failed. While the end result is more pleasant to drink, if I were a 17th century customer who was paying a small fortune for a medicinal cordial, the reduced burn of a spirit would make me think that the apothecary might be ripping me off. Still, we learn from our mistakes.




[1] A flavored non-distilled wine is hippocras
[2] 1517 and 1676 respectively
[3] Frisinger
[4] Anonymous
[5] Hannum, pp. 62
[6] Michael Salernus, in the 12th century, called his distilled wine (brandywine) aqua ardens, which means “burning water”, because the distilled wine could be easily set aflame.
[7] They couldn’t.
[8] Guthriestewart
[9] Plat, Closet, p65
[10] Plat, Closet, p65
[11] While the text says amber, I wonder if Plat meant ambergris, which is alcohol soluble unlike amber.
[12] Although, not the same cinnamon sticks.
[13] 1609
[14] Plat DfL, page E3
[15] Muscadine
[16] Most likely that English wine was horrible, and the English people has developed quite a sweet tooth by the begining of the 17th century.
[17] Jeffs, no page number listed
[18] Ludington, multiple pages
[19] Mencarelli, Tonutti; no page number listed
[20] DuBose; Spingarn, p201-2
[21] ...solera system, whereby small quantities of wine are taken from the oldest casks which are then topped up with wines from the next oldest, and so on, right up to the youngest vintage. Millon, p138
[22] Whether we convert based on the fixed prices of standard goods and services (food, shelter, clothing) or the wages of the average laborer.
[23] Beer was made with hops.
[24] Stow. p363
[25] Measured using a digital, instant-read thermometer.
[26] Good Eats: Switched on Baklava, aired in 2008.
[27] “...and distill again if you like, and take a little spoonful every day while fasting.” Johnstone Manuscript: 1400-1450, Henslow, p73
[28] “...and if a man have need, let him take 4 spoonfuls at once, morning and evening.” Sloane Manuscript 521: 1490-1500 Henslow, p142
[29] French, no page number listed
[30] While my previous cordial project looks on.
[31] At least two years, if I plan on reproducing this project, again.
[32] Based on the starting liquid and alcohol content and the ending volume of liquid and the technology I used.
[33] Right before the event, I purchased an alcohol refractometer. The price of them had dropped to reasonable rates. Using my brand new refractometer I determined that the 2020 cordial was, indeed, 40% ABV and the 2022 cordial was 27% ABV.  I have to give a shout out to my hand waving and blind guessing abilities.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

“2015 New York Laws :: ABC - Alcoholic Beverage Control :: Article 10 - (Alcoholic Beverage Control) SPECIAL PROVISIONS RELATING TO ILLICIT ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES AND STILLS :: 153 - Stills and Distilling Apparatus.” Justia Law, law.justia.com/codes/new-york/2015/abc/article-10/153/.

Alston, Charles. Lectures on the materia medica: containing the natural history of drugs, their virtues and doses: also direction for the study of the materia medica; and an appendix on the method of prescribing, Volume 2. London, Edward and Charles Dilly. 1770.

Boulton, Jeremy. “Food Prices and the Standard of Living in London in the ‘Century of Revolution’, 1580-1700.” The Economic History Review, vol. 53, no. 3, 2000, pp. 455–492. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2598831. Accessed 29 Apr. 2021. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2598831?read-now=1&refreqid=excelsior%3A76d3ac3d50fab9e31c81a2ea6c21d9ef&seq=2#page_scan_tab_contents

Britten, James; Holland, Robert. A Dictionary of English Plant-names, Part 1. For the English dialect society, Trübner & Company, 1886.

Cox, Nancy and Karin Dannehl. Dictionary of Traded Goods and Commodities 1550-1820. Wolverhampton: University of Wolverhampton 2007. British History Online, accessed May 1, 2021, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/traded-goods-dictionary/1550-1820.

DuBose Fred; Spingarn, Evan. The Ultimate Wine Lover’s Guide 2006. Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., 2005

Felter, Harvey Wickes and Lloyd, John Uri. King’s American Dispensatory. 1898 . Scanned version by Henriette Kress, 1999

Fisher. R Fisher’s National Magazine and Industrial Record, Volume 1. 1846

FitzMaurice, Forester Nigel. A Miscellany of Early Cordials. Http://web.raex.com/~obsidian/precwat.html

FitzMaurice, Forester Nigel. A Recipe For Spiced Wines. Http://web.raex.com/~obsidian/spcwine.html

Forbes, Robert J. A Short History of the Art of Distillation: From the Beginnings Up to the Death of Cellier Blumenthal. BRILL, 1970.

French, John. The Art of Distillation. Or, A Treatise of the Choicest Spagyrical Preparations Performed by Way o£ Distillation, Being Partly Taken Out of the Most Select Chemical Authors of the Diverse Languages and Partly Out of the Author’s Manual Experience together with, The Description of the Chiefest Furnaces and Vessels Used by Ancient and Modern Chemists also A Discourse on Diverse Spagyrical Experiments and Curiosities, and of the Anatomy of Gold and Silver, with The Chiefest Preparations and Curiosities Thereof, and Virtues of Them All. All Which Are Contained In Six Books Composed By John French, Dr. of Physick. London. Printed by Richard Cotes and are to sold by Thomas Williams at the Bible in Little-Britain without Aldersgate, 1651. Http://www.levity.com/alchemy/jfren_ar.html

Frisinger, H. Howard. Aristole’s Legacy in Meteorology. “Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society:” Vol. 54, No. 3, pp. 198–204.

Griffin, J P. “Venetian treacle and the foundation of medicines regulation.” British journal of clinical pharmacology vol. 58,3 (2004): 317-25. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2125.2004.02147.x

Griffith, Robert Eglesfeld. A Universal Formulary: Containing the Methods of Preparing and Administering Officinal and Other Medicines. The Whole Adapted to Physicians and Pharmaceutists. Henry C. Lea, 1858

Guthriestewart. “Distillation in 15 th Century England.” Distillatio, 12 June 2015 , distillatio.wordpress.com/2015 /06/12 /distillation-in-15 th-century-england/.

Haigh, J. M. The British Dispensatory, 1747, History of Medicine: S.A. Medical Journal 5 October 1974

Hare, Hobart Amory; Caspari, Charles; Rusby, Henry Hurd; Geisler, Joseph Frank; Kremers, Edward; Base, Daniel. The National Standard Dispensatory: Containing the Natural History, Chemistry, Pharmacy, Actions, and Uses of Medicines : Including Those Recognized in the Pharmacopoeias of the United States, Great Britain, and Germany, with Numerous References to Other Pharmacopoeias : in Accordance with the Eighth Decennial Revision of the United States Pharmacopoeia, as Amended to 1907. Lea Brothers & Company, 1907.

Hannum, Hurst. Brandies and Liqueurs of the World. Doubleday & Company, Garden City, N.Y.

Henslow, G. Medical Works of the Fourteenth Century. Burt Franklin, N.Y., N.Y. 19 72 (reprint of the 1899 edn.)

Henslow, George. Medical Works of the Fourteenth Century: Together With a List Of Plants Recorded In Contemporary Writings, With Their Identifications. London: Chapman and Hall, ld., 1899 . Archive.org call number: RS125 .H46 1899 .

Hieatt, Constance B. and Jones Robin F. Two Anglo-Norman Culinary Collections Edited from British Library Manuscripts Additional 32 085 and Royal 12 .C.xii, “Speculum”, Vol. 61, No. 4 Oct. 1986. Jeffs, Julian. Sherry. Octopus Books, 2004.

Howard, George Shelby. The New Royal Cyclopaedia; Or, Modern Universal Dictionary Of Arts And Sciences: On Entire New And Approved Plan, And Including All The Modern Discoveries And Latest Improvements On The Various Subject. Containing A New, Full ... Digest And Display Of The Whole Theory And Practice Of The Liberal And Mechanical Arts, And All The Various Respective Sciences, Human And Divine. Alphabetically Arranged, And Digested In The Most Complete, Regular, And Systematical Manner. Together With Full, Clear, And Satisfactory Explanations Of All The Various Detached Parts Of Knowledge, According To The Best And Most Respectable Authorities. Comprizing A Regular And General Course Of Ancient And Modern Literature, From The Very Earliest Ages Of The World, Down To The Present Time. Including All The Latest Discoveries And Improvements In The Various Branches Of The Arts And Sciences, Particularly Acoustics ... Zoology, &C. &C. &C. The Whole Entirely Freed From The Many Errors ... Of Other Writers On The Various Subject; And Forming A More Methodical, Intelligent, And Complete Repository Of General And Universal Knowledge, Than Any Other Cyclopaedia ... In The English Language. Illustrated With Near Two Hundred Very Large Superb Copper-Plates, Accurately Descriptive Of All The Numerous And Various Important Subjects To Which They Refer. In Three Large Handosme Volumes. Alex. Hogg, At The King’s Arms, No. 16, Paternoster-Row, 1790.

Jeffs, Julian. Sherry. Octopus Books, 2004

Kellwaye, Simon. A defensatiue against the plague contayning two partes or treatises: the first, shewing the meanes how to preserue vs from the dangerous contagion ... those that are infected therewith. (1593) Paperback – December 14, 2010, EEBO Editions, ProQuest (December 14, 2010).

Liebault, John and Stevens, Charles. Le Maison Rustique or The Convntry Farms. Translated into English by Richard Surflet. Arnold Harfield. London. 1606.

“List of Price of Medieval Items.” Medieval Price List, medieval.ucdavis.edu/120D/Money.html.

Ludington, Charles. The Politics of Wine in Britain: A New Cultural History. Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

Lukacs, Paul. Inventing Wine: A New History of One of the World’s Most Ancient Pleasures. W. W. Norton & Company, 2013.

Mareschal, THL Alexander. Alcoholic Drinks of the Middle Ages. “Complete Anachronist” #60. http://home.sunlitsurf.com/~mshapiro/cliqueur.html#liqueur recipes

MacMillan, Lord Alistair. Wine. “Scum” Volume 1, number 16

Mencarelli, Fabio; Tonutti, Pietro. Sweet, Reinforced and Fortified Wines: Grape Biochemistry, Technology and Vinification. John Wiley & Sons, 2013

Millon, Marc. Wine: A Global History. Reaktion Books, 2013.

“Mithridate.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 2 Mar. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithridate.

Plat, Hugh, Sir, and Katherine Golden Bitting Collection On Gastronomy. Delights for Ladies to Adorn Their Persons, Tables, Closets, and Distillatories, With Beauties, Banquets, Perfumes, and Waters. London: Printed by J. Young, 644. Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/73217891 /.

Plat, Sir Hugh. A Closet for Ladies and Gentlevvomen. Or, The Art of Preseruing, Conseruing, and Candying. Entered in the Stationers Registry: 1 September 1602 London: Printed [by F. Kingston] for Arthur Iohnson, dvvelling neere the great north dore of Paules, 1608. Edited and Annotated by Johnna H. Holloway. Published through www.medievalcookery.com: 2011 .

Plat, Sir Hugh. Delights for ladies to adorn their persons, tables, closets, and distillatories, with beauties, banquets, perfumes, and waters. London, Printed by J. Young, 1644.

Plat, Hugh. Delightes for ladies to adorn their persons, tables, closets, and distillatories: with beauties, banquets, perfumes and waters. (1608) Paperback – July 13 , 2010

Rai, Mahendra; Bhattarai, Shandesh; Feitosa, Chistiane M. Wild Plants: The Treasure of Natural Healers. CRC Press, Nov 25, 2020.

Ray, Cyril, The Complete Book of Spirits and Liqueurs. MacMillan Publishing Co, Inc., New York, N.Y.

Saller R, Iten F, Reichling J. 2001. [Dyspepsia and phytotherapy – a review of traditional and modern herbal drugs.] Forsch Komplementarmed Klass Naturheilkd 2001 Oct; 8(5): 263-73. [Article in German]

Speculum Alchemiae | About Us, www.alchemiae.cz/en/about-us.

Stow, John. A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster, Borough of Southwark, and Parts Adjacent ...: Being an Improvement of Mr. Stow’s, and Other Surveys, by Adding Whatever Alterations Have Happened in the Said Cities, &c. to the Present Year ... T. Read, 1735.

Wilson, C. Anne. Food & Drink in Britain: From the Stone Age to the 19 th Century. Academy Chicago Pub. 1991.

Wright, F. B. A Practical Handbook On The Distillation Of Alcohol From Farm Products Including The Processes Of Malting; Mashing And Mascerating; Fermenting And Distilling Alcohol From Grain, Beets, Potatoes. Molasses, Etc.. With Chapters On Alcoholometry And The De-Naturing Of Alcohol For Use In Farm Engines, Automobiles, Launch Motors, And In Heating And Lighting; With A Synopsis Of The New Free Alcohol Law And Its Amendment And The Government Regulations. 2nd Edition. Spon & Chamberlain. New York. 1907

 This was an Ice Dragon Pent project from 2013.

===================

16th Century Cordial

 Purpose:

This project is not only a period cordial, but a comparison between said cordial, the original spiced wine and the same spices in brandy and vodka. The purpose is to demonstrate the differences between a distilled beverage, the original spiced wine and the equivalents of infused spirits. With hope, this document will help future brewers with reproducing period cordials.

There are four bottles for this project:

1) Spiced red wine.
2) A cordial distilled from the same spiced red wine.
3) Spiced aged brandy.
4) Spiced vodka.

 

Please sample the beverages in the above order. First the original wine and compare its flavor to the distilled cordial. Then compare the cordial to the spiced bandy and finally to the spiced vodka. The goal is to see which one of the spirits is closest in taste to the distilled wine.

Introduction:

To begin with, allow me to define what a cordial is. A cordial is a flavored alcoholic beverage, normally wine, that has been distilled.[1] The majority of cordial recipes date to the end of the SCA period but there are enough recipes that we can conclude that they were well known and popular. Some modern cordials, such as Benedictine and Frangelico, date back to the 16th and 17th Century.[2] The theory of distilling itself dates back to the 4th Century BCE when Aristotle wrote Meteorology in which he details the specifics of the process.[3]

The earliest European records of flavored alcohols were written by a Spanish alchemist by the name of Arnold de Vila Nova. In 1240 he wrote the Boke of Wine in which he details methods for flavoring alcohol and proposed the restorative and life giving properties of these beverages. One of Arnold’s students, Raymond Lully, proclaimed that their production was “a divinely inspired gift from Heaven.”[4] Legal documents dating to 1411 mention the distillation of wine into brandy in the Armagnac region of France.[5]

By the 14th Century, the drinking of these beverages had become very popular in Italy and had also spread into France. A Tuscany native, Catherine de Medici,[6] is often credited with bringing them with her to France. There is some discussion as to whether or not she was the first to introduce them to France, but there is no doubt that she certainly increased the popularity and acceptance of these drinks among the nobility of France.

Most of the surviving recipes offer cordials for medicinal use rather than recreational use, and most of these recipes are listed along side of those for liniments, surfeits, poultices and other medicinal tonics. It is more than likely that the liqueur evolved as a sweet beverage as to counter act the bitterness of the herbs and other ingredients. But is not my intention to reproduce a modern cough syrup, nor is it to flavor brandy or vodka and pretend that it’s period. This recipe will be made from infused wine and then distilled. The resultant cordial will be compared to similarly infused brandy and vodka. A post on the Gwyntarian Tunners Guild’s message board captures my feelings quite closely:[7]

If I may make a comment to this ‘I documented Brandy - used Vodka’ syndrome which is very common in the SCA, in A&S and in general: it DOES taste somewhat similar; but it’s generally only close, no cigar. If you have made the ‘recreation of a Period cordial’ your intent, it falls short of the mark, in that it is wrong, and/or undocumented. As an A&S judge, I have had to point that out, from time to time, especially when they use that old TI article as documentation. Not that Vodka isn’t in the general definition of distilled spirits, but Brandy is the spirit specified in period documents. Perhaps there is some cultural bias that keeps suggesting that substituting relatively modern, undocumented distillates in recipes calling for Brandy is desirable, but the research and making/testing of Cordials by Mistress Arwenna and the Gwyntarian Tunners Guild suggests otherwise. The main point is that philosophically, you’re pulling a ‘bait and switch’ of sorts, every time you substitute a modern equivalent ... for that called for in the Period recipes, when the Period ingredient is easily obtained. ... For me, though, it’s the equivalent of making a Rum cake, and throwing in Scotch instead, on the above theory. It may very well make a lovely cake, (I like Scotch), but it is no longer a Rum cake. (aside from the fact that Scotch is documentably Period, and Rum isn’t not.

Distillation:

To set the matter straight: distillation is illegal within the USA, and before I started this project I examined the law carefully. Article 10, Section 153 of the Special Provisions Relating To Illicit Alcoholic Beverages And Stills states the following:

Any person who shall manufacture any illicit alcoholic beverage or who, not being duly licensed as a distiller under the provisions of the alcoholic beverage control law, shall own, operate, possesses or have under his control any still or distilling apparatus is guilty of a felony. “Still” or “ distilling apparatus” shall mean any apparatus designed, intended, actually used, or capable of being used for or in connection with the separating of alcoholic or spirituous vapors, or alcohol or spirituous solutions, or alcohol or spirits, from alcohol or spirituous solutions or mixtures, but shall not include stills used for laboratory purposes or stills used for distilling water, oil, alcoholic or nonalcoholic materials where the cubic capacity of such stills is one gallon or less.

As I would only be distilling a liter of wine in a non-pressurized stock pot, and that I would not be selling the product nor transporting it across state lines, I feel that this is a safe project.

Method:

1) 1 liter of red wine spiced with three cloves, one large sprig of rosemary and 1 ounce of fresh ginger: strained.
2) 1 liter of red wine spiced with three cloves, one large sprig of rosemary and 1 ounce of fresh ginger: distilled.
3) 375ml of VSOP[8] brandy spiced with one clove, one half sprig of rosemary and 1 half ounce of fresh ginger
4) 375ml of vodka spiced with one clove, one half sprig of rosemary and 1 half ounce of fresh ginger

I was unable to procure unflavored white (unaged) brandy to complete this project.

The project starts off with some home made wine that was vinted in mid 2010. The wine was made with 25 pounds of locally grown red, seedless grapes,[9] which were purchased at my corner farmer’s market, three gallons of water and one packet of Mutton’s wine yeast. The grapes were sufficiently sweet enough to not require any additional sugar to be added. Not owning a wine press, I stripped the grapes from their stems and mashed them, the grapes, in a mixing bowl with a potato masher. The juice, pulp, skins and stems were placed into a stockpot with 1/2 gallon of water and boiled to kill off any wild yeast. After boiling for one minute, the must was transferred into the primary fermenter, along with the additional 2.5 gallons of water. Since the wine was going to be fermented in plastic and glass, I added two ounces of oak chips (also boiled) to the fermenter. My hope was the oak would give the wine some additional flavor. After allowing the must to cool overnight, I pitched the wine yeast and left it alone for two weeks.

After two weeks I racked the liquid into the secondary fermenter and discarded the remains. After six months the wine was racked over into the tertiary fermenter. After an additional six months, it was racked into the quaternary fermenter. It was left in the quaternary fermenter for around 18 months before being bottled. The resulting wine is pale red, dry yet with a touch of sweetness and a bit acidic. As I do not know what variety of grapes I used were, I can do no more than call my wine “red.”

To finish up the cordial, I turned to a recipe from Maison Rustique:[10]

Take equal parts of cloves, ginger, and fowers of rosemary, infuse them in very good wine the space of eight days: distil the whole. This water comforteth the stomacke, assuageth the pains and wringings of the belly, killeth worms, and maketh fat folk to becom leane, or maketh fat the leane, if they drink it mixt with sugar.

Two one liter bottles were filled with the wine and each one was spiced with three cloves, one large sprig of rosemary and 1 ounce of fresh ginger. The last time I made a cordial, I used ”two ounces of fresh ginger, two pinches of dried cloves (about 12 cloves) and four sprigs of rosemary, stems and all.” After distillation, the cordial had such a strong presence of cloves that it could have been used as a toothache remedy. Which was a good thing as the ginger would have burned one’s mouth.[11] Cutting back on the cloves will mean that the imbiber will be able to taste the rosemary and the ginger. I reduced the quantity of the rosemary and ginger so that they would not overpower the beverage.

Two 375ml bottles each of VSOP (aged) brandy and vodka (cheap) were spiced with one clove, one half sprig of rosemary and 1 half ounce of fresh ginger. I estimated the reduced amount of the spices based on the smaller amount of spirits and the higher alcohol content of each. I wanted a good comparison between the cordial and the infused spirits.

 

The spices were left to infuse for eight days before being strained out of the spirits and one of the two bottles of wine. The contents of the second bottle of wine was poured into a stockpot into which there was a brick topped with a ceramic bowl. The wine was brought to 170F[12], the lid placed on the pot and bags of ice placed on top of the lid. This method of low-pressure distillation is often used for home perfume and oil making. The instructions came from a cooking show on how to make home made rose water.[13]

At 170F the alcohol will boil off and rise to the top of the container, where it will condense when in contact with the cold lid and fall into the bowl, which is insulated from the heat by the brick. A turkey baster was used to transfer the cordial from the bowl into a waiting container and the ice was replaced as needed. After two and a half hours, less than a half a liter of clear liquid was distilled out of the wine.

Red Wine:

Red wines were known in period:[14]

... By the mid 13th century, three fourths of England’s royal wine came from Bordeaux, at a freight charge of 8 shillings the ton. The wine fleet convened twice a year; in October for the “vintage” shipping, and in February for the “rack” shipping of wine drawn off the lees. We have Bordeaux’s export figures for seven years of the early 14th century, averaging 83,000 tonneaux of 12 score and 12 gallons each. England took about half of this, and when the new wine arrived, last year’s was halved in price, or even just thrown away. These wines were the common drink, lower in status the Mediterranean and Rhenish wines, but they were plentiful and cheap. Bordeaux made three kinds of wines: white, red , and clairet. Until about 1600, clairet meant a light colored wine, ranging from yellow, as distinct from white, to pink. To get the desired pink color, called “partridge-eye”, red and white wines were often mixed. Red wines then would have been very light. They were only on the skins one day, and absorbed little color and tannins. After the wine was drawn off, the remainder, redder and coarser, was used for tinting wine, or sold cheaply as “vin vermeilh” or “pin pin”. This amounted to about 15% .

Herbs and Spices:

The medicinal properties of these three giants of flavor were well known:

Rosemary:[15] Our garden Rosemary is so well known, that I need not describe it. Government and virtues : The Sun claims privilege in it, and it is under the celestial Ram. It is an herb of as great use with us in these days as any whatsoever, not only for physical but civil purposes. The physical use of it (being my present task) is very much used both for inward and outward diseases, for by the warming and comforting heat thereof it helps all cold diseases both of the head, stomach, liver, and belly. The decoction thereof in wine, helps the cold distillations of rheum into the eyes, and all other cold diseases of the head and brain, as the giddiness or swimmings therein, drowsiness or dullness of the mind and senses like a stupidness, the dumb palsy, or loss of speech, the lethargy, and fallen- sickness, to be both drank, and the temples bathed therewith. It helps the pains in the gums and teeth, by rheum falling into them, not by putrefaction, causing an evil smell from them, or a stinking breath. It helps a weak memory, and quickens the senses. It is very comfortable to the stomach in all the cold griefs thereof, helps both retention of meat, and digestion, the decoction or powder being taken in wine. It is a remedy for the windiness in the stomach, bowels, and spleen, and expels it powerfully. It helps those that are liver-grown, by opening the obstructions thereof. It helps dim eyes, and procures a clear sight, the flowers thereof being taken all the while it is flowering every morning fasting, with bread and salt. Both Dioscorides and Galen say, That if a decoction be made thereof with water, and they that have the yellow jaundice exercise their bodies directly after the taking thereof, it will certainly cure them. The flowers and conserve made of them are singularly good to comfort the heart, and to expel the contagion of the pestilence; to burn the herb in houses and chambers, corrects the air in them. Both the flowers and leaves are very profitable for women that are troubled with the whites, if they be daily taken. The dried leaves shred small, and taken in a pipe, as tobacco is taken, helps those that have any cough, phthisic, or consumption, by warming and drying the thin distillations which cause those diseases. The leaves are very much used in bathings; and made into ointments or oil, are singularly good to help cold benumbed joints, sinews, or members. The chymical oil drawn from the leaves and flowers, is a sovereign help for all the diseases aforesaid, to touch the temples and nostrils with two or three drops for all the diseases of the head and brain spoken of before; as also to take one drop, two, or three, as the case requires, for the inward griefs. Yet must it be done with discretion, for it is very quick and piercing, and therefore but a little must be taken at a time. There is also another oil made by insolation in this manner: Take what quantity you will of the flowers, and put them into a strong glass close stopped, tie a fine linen cloth over the mouth, and turn the mouth down into another strong glass, which being set in the sun, an oil will distil down into the lower glass, to bepreserved as precious for divers uses, both inward and outward, as a sovereign balm to heal the disease beforementioned, to clear dim sights, and to take away spots, marks, and scars in the skin.

Cloves:[16] It is vain to describe an herb so well known. Government and virtues: They are gallant, fine, temperate flowers, of the nature and under the dominion of Jupiter; yea, so temperate, that no excess, neither in heat, cold, dryness, nor moisture, can be perceived in them; they are great strengtheners both of the brain and heart, and will therefore serve either for cordials or cephalics, as your occasion will serve. There is both a syrup and a conserve made of them alone, commonly to be had at every apothecary’s. To take now and then a little of either, strengthens nature much, in such as are in consumptions. They are also excellently good in hot pestilent fevers, and expel poison.

Ginger:[17]Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage. Ginger is stimulant, rubefacient, errhine, and sialagogue. When chewed it occasions an increased flow of saliva, and when swallowed it acts as a stimulating tonic, stomachic, and carminative, increasing the secretion of gastric juice, exalting the excitability of the alimentary muscular system, and dispelling gases accumulated in the stomach and bowels. Prepared with rhubarb, in the form of cordial or syrup, few articles are more valuable in cholera morbus and cholera infantum, when there is coldness of the surface and extremities, and nausea and vomiting accompany. It is eminently useful in habitual flatulency, atonic dyspepsia, hysteria, and enfeebled and relaxed habits, especially of old and gouty individuals; and is excellent to relieve nausea, pains and cramps of the stomach and bowels, and to obviate tenesmus, and especially when those conditions are due to colds, or to the ingestion of unripe or otherwise unwholesome fruit. Ginger is occasionally of value in fevers, particularly where the salivary secretions are scanty and there is pain and movement of gases within the intestines. Here, though a stimulant, it will assist in producing sedation by re-establishing secretion and relieving the distressing gastro-intestinal annoyances.

Spicing wine was not an uncommon practice and it is believed to be the “father” of cordials and liqueurs. The spicing of wine is among the oldest of methods of fortifying the beverage and granting it better taste or medicinal properties. Specific commentaries and recipes for it can be found from early Roman Imperial times. Some spiced wines, such as hippocras,[18] were an industry into themselves by the 14th Century. A recipe from a collection of Norman French papers called “B. L. Additional 32085” dating to the reign of King Edward I[19] is as follows:[20]

28. ICI COMENCE COMENT L’EN DEIT FERE CLAREE. Pernez de kanele, de gyngivre, de maces, les deus parties; de gilofres, nois de muge, fuyle de Inde, la tierce partie; semence de fenoyl, anys, karewi, autaunt; kardamome, squinaunte, la quarte partie; spicanardi a la meitJ de tuttes les autres choses. E metez en pudre, e puys metez la pudre en une puche, e pernez vin blaunc ou vermail e versez desus la pudre e fetes coler com lescive, si averez claree; e taunt cum plus reversez e colez la chose avaunt colee, si averez vostre claree plus forte, e si vos n’avez pas tuz ces espices, pernez kanele e gingivre, maces, les deux parties; de gilofres e spicanardi a la meitJ de tuttes les autres choses, e metez en pudre, e colez cum devaunt est dist; si averez claree. Explicit.

28. HERE BEGIN INSTRUCTIONS FOR MAKING CLAREE. Take half a measure of cinnamon, ginger, and mace; a third of a measure of cloves, nutmeg, malabathrum; fennel, anise, and caraway seeds, in the same amount; cardamom and squinant, a fourth of a measure; and spikenard in the amount of half the quantity of al the other spices. Grind this into a powder, and then put the powder in a pouch, and take white or red wine and pour it over the powder, wring it through the cloth, and you will have claree; the more you repeat the process, the stronger your claree will be. If you do not have all these spices, take two measures of cinnamon, ginger, and mace, cloves and spikenard to half the quantity of all other ingredients; grind to a powder, and strain as described above, and you will have claree.

Sir Kenelm Digbie listed the following hippocras recipe:

To make Ypocrasse for lords with gynger, synamon, and graines, sugour, and turnesol:and for comyn pepul, gynger, canell, longe peper, and clarifyed hony.

John French’s second book, The Art of Distillation, is almost completely devoted to the distillation of medicinal tonics. Nine examples follow:

USQUE - BATH OR IRISH AQUA VITAE IS MADE THUS Take a gallon of small aqua vitae and put it into a glass vessel. Put thereto a quart of canary sack, two pounds of raisins of the sun stoned, but not washed, two ounces of dates stoned, and the white skins thereof pulled out, two ounces of cinnamon grossly bruised, four good nutmegs bruised, an ounce of the best english licorice sliced and bruised. Stop the vessels very close and let them infuse in a cold place six or eight days. Then let the liquor run through a bag called Manica Hippocratis made of white cotton. This liquor is commonly used in surfeits, being a good stomach water.

AQUA CELESTIS IS MADE THUS Take of cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmegs, zedoary, galangal, long pepper, citron pill, spikenard, lignum aloes, cububs, cardamum, calamus aromaticus, germander, ground pine, mace, white frankincense, tormentil, hermodactyls, the pith of dwarf elder, juniper berries, bay berries, the seeds and flowers of motherwort, the seeds of smallage, the seeds of fennel, seeds of anise, the leaves of sorrel, the leaves of sage, the leaves of felwort, rosemary, marJoram, mints, pennyroyal, stechados, the flowers of elder, the flowers of red roses, the flowers of white roses, of the leaves of scabious, rue, the lesser moonwort, agrimony, centory, fumitory, pimpernel, sow thistle, eyebright, maidenhair, endive, red launders, aloes - of each two ounces, pure amber, the best rhubarb - of each two drams, dried figs, raisins of the sun, stoned dates, sweet almonds, grains of the pine - of each an ounce. Of the best aqua vitae to the quantity of them all, of the best hard sugar a pound, of white honey half a pound. Then add the root of gentian, flowers of rosemary, pepperwort, the root of briony, sow bread, wormwood - of each half an ounce. Now before these are distilled, quench gold being made red hot, oftentimes in the aforesaid water, put therein oriental pearls beaten small an ounce, and then distill it after 24 hours infusion. This is a very cordial water, good against faintings and infection.

AQUA IMPERIALIS IS MADE THUS Take of the rind of citrons dried, oranges, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon - of each two ounces; of each half a pound of the roots of flowers-de-luce, the roots of cyprus, the roots of calamus aromaticus, the roots of zedoary, the roots of galangal, the roots of ginger; two handsful each of the tops of lavender, the tops of rosemary; of the leaves of the bay tree, of the leaves of marjoram, of the leaves of balm, of the leaves of mint, of the leaves of sage, of the leaves of thyme, flowers of white roses, flowers of damask roses, of each half a handful; rose water, four pints; the best white wine, a gallon. Bruise what must be bruised. Then infuse them all 24 hours, after which distill them. This is of the same virtue as the former.

AQUA MIRABILIS IS MADE THUS Take a dram each of cloves, galangal, cububs, mace, cardamum, nutmeg, and ginger; half a pint of the juice of sallendine; a pint of the spirit of wine; three pints of white wine. Infuse all these 24 hours, and then distill off two pints by alembic. This water is very good against wind in the stomach and head.

DR. STEPHEN’S WATER IS MADE THUS Take a gallon of gascoigne wine; a dram each of ginger, galganal, cinnamon, nutmeg, grains, aniseed, fennel seeds, carroway seeds; a handful each of sage, red mints, red roses, thyme, pellitory, rosemary, wild thyme, chamomile, and lavender. Beat the spices small and bruise the herbs, letting them macerate 12 hours, stirring them now and then. Distill them by an alembic or copper still with its refrigeratory. Keep the first pint by itself, and the second by itself. Note that the first pint will be hotter, but the second the stronger of the ingredients. This water is well known to comfort all the principal parts.

A FAMOUS SURFEIT WATER Take of red poppy cakes (after the water has been distilled from them in a cold still) not over dried two pounds. Pour upon them of the water of red poppy a gallon and a half, canary wine three pints. Add to them of coriander seeds bruised four ounces, of dill seed bruised two ounces, of cloves bruised half an ounce, of nutmeg sliced an ounce, of rosemary a handful, three oranges cut in the middle. Distill them in a hot still. To the water put the juice of six oranges and hang in it half an ounce of nutmeg sliced and as much cinnamon bruised, two drams of cloves, a handful of rosemary cut small, sweet fennel seeds bruised an ounce, of raisins of the sun stoned half a pound, being all put into a bag, which may be hung in the water (the vessel being close stopped) the space of a month, and then be taken out and cast away, the liquor thereof being first pressed out into the foresaid water. This water is of wonderful virtue in surfeits and pleurisies, composes the spirits, causes rest, helps digestion if two or three or four ounces thereof be drunk, and the patient composes himself to rest.

A PECTORAL WATER Distill green hysop in a cold still until you have a gallon and a half of the water. To this put four handfuls of dried hysop, a handful of rue, as much of rosemary, and horehound, elecampane root, bruised, and of horse-radish root, bruised, of each four ounces, of tobacco in the leaf three ounces, aniseed bruised two ounces, two quarts of canary wine. Let them all stand in digestion two days and then distill them. In the water that is distilled put half a pound of raisins of the sun stoned, of licorice two ounces, sweet fennel seeds bruised two ounces and a half, ginger sliced an ounce and a half. Let them be infused in frigido the space of ten days. Then take them out. This water sweetened with sugar candy and drunk to the quantity of three or four ounces twice in a day is very good for those that are ptisical. It strengthens the lungs, attenuates thick phlegm, opens obstructions, and is very good to comfort the stomach.

A VERY EXCELLENT WATER AGAINST THE WORMS Take of worm seed eight ounces, the shavings of harts-horn two ounces, of peach flowers dried an ounce, of aloes bruised half an ounce. Pour on these the water of tansy, rue, peach flowers, and of wormwood, of each a pint and a half. Let them, being put into a glass vessel be digested the space of three days. Then distill them. Cohobate this water three times. This water is very excellent against the worms. It may be given from half an ounce to 3 ounces, according to the age of the patient.

A WATER AGAINST THE CONVULSIONS Take of ros vitriol (which is that water that is distilled from vitriol in the calcining thereof) two quarts. In this put of rue a handful, juniper berries bruised an ounce, of bay berries bruised half an ounce, piony berries bruised six drams, camphor two drams, rhubarb sliced an ounce. Digest these four days in a temperate balneum. Then distill them in a glass vessel in ashes, and there will come over a water of no small virtue. It cures convulsions in children, especially. It helps also the vertigo, the hysterical passion, and epilepsy. It is very excellent against all offensive vapors and wind that annoys the head and stomach. It may be taken from two drams to two ounces.

The following diagram was given in F. B. Wright’s Distillation of Alcohol And De-Naturing. He lists his source as a 17th century book, but does not list the title. Wright lists the following components

V a wooden vat having a tight fitting cover a, through the center of which a hole has been cut. The wide end of a goose neck of copper pipe g is securely fitted over this aperture, the smaller end of this pipe passes through the cover of the retort R extending nearly to the bottom; wis the steam supply pipe from boiler; M the rectifier consisting of a cylindrical copper vessel containing a number of small vertical pipes surrounded by a cold water jacket; o the inlet for the cold water which circulates around these small pipes, discharging at n; the pipes in M have a common connection to a pipe p, which connects the rectifier with coil in cooler C; s is a pipe to the receptacle for receiving the distillate; u cold water supply pipe to cooler, and W discharge for warmed-up water, k discharge for refuse wash in vat V. The operation is as follows: The vat Vis nearly filled with fermented mash and retort R with weak distillate from a previous operation. Steam is then turned into the pipe; discharging near the bottom of the vat V and working up through the mash. This heats up the mash and the vapors escape up g over into R where they warm up the weak distillate. The vapors thus enriched rise into M, where a good percentage of the water vapor is distilled, that is, condensed by the cold water surrounding the small pipes. The vapor then passes over through C into the coil, where it is liquified and from whence it passes by pipe s into the receiver. The cold water for cooling both M and C can be turned on as soon as the apparatus has become thoroughly heated up.

My method was as different from Wright’s description as possible. As I have already described, my “still” is a low pressure one, unlike the one described by Wright. With the lid placed on the pot, the internal pressure does increase, but not by much, as there is no mechanism to enclose the pressure: hot air can still escape from around the lid. However, the slight increase of internal pressure does serve to allow the alcohol vapor to boil off faster and be retained long enough to condense against the cold lid.

Observations and Conclusions:

The wine and cordial were transferred to nice containers while the infused spirits were left in their original containers. This was done for two reasons: 1) I wanted to ensure that they would not be confused for other beverages. 2) I did not have any clean, nice bottles available for them.

 

1) Spiced wine: The wine, which was slightly sweet to begin with, ended up with a strong flavor of clove and ginger. The aroma was very mild.

2) Cordial: The cordial was a little bit sweet and a touch harsh. The liquid was clear; all traces of its original color were gone. The aroma was subtle and the flavor of the cloves, rosemary and ginger helped smooth out the “new” bite of the cordial.

3) Brandy: The brandy was sweet and smooth. The flavors of the herbs and spices were plesant on the tongue, although there was a definite aroma and flavor of vanilla, which is missing from the wine and the cordial.

4) Vodka: The vodka offered nothing to the flavor or aroma of the final product; in fact it degrades the beverage. The vodka was very harsh and the aroma was decidedly one of alcohol. The burning overbite of the vodka all but overpowers anything the herbs and spices added. The end result was something that, to my taste, was medicinal. I do not think that this would be improved by using better vodka.

My conclusion is that when reproducing a period cordial, without resorting to distillation, one should choose spirits that are closest to what one is trying to reproduce. Cordials based upon the distillation of wine, one should only use brandy and never vodka. Distillation, either using period equipment or the method that I used, is not a perfect method: all of the alcohol (and alcohol soluble flavors and oils) is not removed from the remaining liquid. Even modern fractional distillation equipment, used by chemical labs, cannot perfectly separate alcohol from water in one pass. In addition to alcohol (and alcohol soluble flavors and oils), water is also distilled along with water soluble flavors and oils.

When I distilled the wine, some of the sugar, in solution with the water, was condensed into the collection bowl along with the alcohol. Also, some of the flavor of the wine was distilled. The water soluble sugar, tannins, and oils are enhanced, along with the alcohol soluble flavors, by the higher alcohol content of the cordial. I estimate that the distillation converted the 12% ABV wine into a 20 to 25% ABV spirit while removing the predominate, and overpowering, flavors of the wine and of the herbs and spices. The result is a beverage where subtle flavors become more pronounced.

Vodka is distilled several times to remove impurities. Even the cheap vodka that I used was distilled three times. The result is a spirit with no flavor other than alcohol. Some people will say that that is the point: use a spirit with no flavor of its own so that one can only taste whatever is being infused into it. My counterpoint, and the purpose of this project, is to show that we want the flavors of the wine. We want the sugars and the tannins and the aromas that the wine gives up, when distilled. While the majority of period cordials recipes were for medicinal use, that does not mean that they tasted like medicine, or that our reproductions should taste like medicine. Many vodka-based modern cordials, including those entered into SCA A&S completions, include sugar or honey as an ingredient to counteract the harshness of the vodka. Why use vodka, then?

Commercial brandy is the best choice for wine-based cordial reproductions. It carries the subtle flavors of the wine from which it was distilled, it is naturally sweet, it is a period beverage for the regions where the recipes originate and it is the product of distilling wine. I would have preferred to have used white (unaged) brandy for this project as the aging process does add additional flavors. The brandy that I used was aged for five years in oak. The oak did give the brandy an additional vanilla flavor[21] and the aging did mellow the flavors. For some reason, none of the liquor stores I visited carried white brandy that was unflavored; I did not want to use peach, peppermint or mango flavored bandy. I believe that infused white-brandy would best represent distilling infused wine.

In conclusion: for reproducing wine-based cordials; distilling wine is the best option, albeit the most illegal, infusing white brandy would be the second best choice and then aged brandy. Vodka should not be used.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Anonymous. All Liquored Up! “The Herb Source” Volume 6 Issue 2 Oct. 2002

Culpeper, Nicholas. Culpeper’s Complete Herbal And English Physician; Wherein Several Hundred Herbs; With A Display Of Their Medicinal And Occult Properties; Are Physically Applied To The Cure Of All Disorders Incident To Mankind: To Which Are Added Rules For Compounding Medicines; Forming A Complete Family Dispensatory, And System Of Physic. To Which Is Annexed The British Florist Or Flower Garden Displayed; In Which The Most Ornamental Plants Will Be Accurately Represented In Their Natural Colours; With Their Names, Class, Order, Characters, Plans Of Growth, And Times Of Flowering; Together With The Most Approved Methods Of Culture. 1814

Culpeper, Nicholas. The English physitian: or an astrologo-physical discourse of the vulgar herbs of this nation. London : Peter Cole, 1652., 1652. Yale Medical School: http://www.med.yale.edu/library/historical/culpeper/culpeper.htm

Digbie, Sir Kenelme, The Closet of the Eminently Learned Digbie Kt Opened: Whereby is Discovered Several ways for making of Metheglin, Sider, Cherry-Wine, &c. together with Excellent Directions for Cookery: As also for Preserving, Conserving, Candying, &c. First edition, London, 1669. Transcribed by Joyce Miller

Felter, Harvey Wickes and Lloyd, John Uri. King’s American Dispensatory. 1898. Scanned version by Henriette Kress. 1999

FitzMaurice, Forester Nigel. A Miscellany of Early Cordials. Http://web.raex.com/~obsidian/precwat.html

FitzMaurice, Forester Nigel. A Recipe For Spiced Wines. Http://web.raex.com/~obsidian/spcwine.html

Frangelico Online. Http://www.frangelico.com/default_en.asp

French, John. The Art of Distillation. Or, A Treatise of the Choicest Spagyrical Preparations Performed by Way o£ Distillation, Being Partly Taken Out of the Most Select Chemical Authors of the Diverse Languages and Partly Out of the Author’s Manual Experience together with, The Description of the Chiefest Furnaces and Vessels Used by Ancient and Modern Chemists also A Discourse on Diverse Spagyrical Experiments and Curiosities, and of the Anatomy of Gold and Silver, with The Chiefest Preparations and Curiosities Thereof, and Virtues of Them All. All Which Are Contained In Six Books Composed By John French, Dr. of Physick. London. Printed by Richard Cotes and are to sold by Thomas Williams at the Bible in Little-Britain without Aldersgate, 1651. Http://www.levity.com/alchemy/jfren_ar.html

Frisinger, H. Howard. Aristole’s Legacy in Meteorology. “Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society:” Vol. 54, No. 3, pp. 198–204.

Hannum, Hurst. Brandies and Liqueurs of the World. Doubleday & Company, Garden City, N.Y.

Hefner, Patricia. Found in Stefan’s Florilegium.

Hieatt, Constance B. and Jones Robin F. Two Anglo-Norman Culinary Collections Edited from British Library Manuscripts Additional 32085 and Royal 12.C.xii, “Speculum”, Vol. 61, No. 4 Oct. 1986

Hobbs, Christopher. Vitex: The Chaste Tree. (Pharmacy in History.) 1998

Liebault, John and Stevens, Charles. Le Maison Rustique or The Convntry Farms. Translated into English by Richard Surflet. Arnold Harfield. London. 1606

Mareschal, THL Alexander. Alcoholic Drinks of the Middle Ages. “Complete Anachronist” #60. http://home.sunlitsurf.com/~mshapiro/cliqueur.html#liqueur recipes

MacMillan, Lord Alistair. Wine. “Scum” Volume 1, number 16

Pichon, Jerome. Le Menagier de Platina. 1394. Translation by Janet Hinson, 1844. Annotated and posted by David Friedman and Elizabeth Cook. Http://www.best.com/~ddfr/Medieval/Cookbooks/Menagier/Menagier.html

Pichon, Jerome. Le Menagier de Paris. 1394. Translation by Eileen Power, “The Goodman of Paris. 1928. “ reprinted in Richard M. Golden and Thomas Kuehn, eds., Western Societies: Primary Sources in Social History, Vol I, (New York: St Martins, 1993).

Toussaint-Samat, Maguelonne. History of Food. Translated from the French by Anthea Bell. Barnes & Noble Books. 1992.

Wilson, C. Anne. Food & Drink in Britain: From the Stone Age to the 19th Century. Academy Chicago Pub. 1991

The World of Benedictine. Http://www.benedictine.fr/anglais/histoire_frame.html.

Wright, F. B. A Practical Handbook On The Distillation Of Alcohol From Farm Products Including The Processes Of Malting; Mashing And Mascerating; Fermenting And Distilling Alcohol From Grain, Beets, Potatoes. Molasses, Etc.. With Chanters On Alcoholometry And The De-Naturing Of Alcohol For Use In Farm Engines, Automobiles, Launch Motors, And In Heating And Lighting; With A Synopsis Of The New Free Alcohol Law And Its Amendment And The Government Regulations. 2nd Edition. Spon & Chamberlain. New York. 1907


[1] a flavored non-distilled alcohol is hippocras
[2] 1517 and 1676 respectively
[3] Frisinger
[4] Anonymous
[5] Hannum, pp. 62
[6] Ibid., pp 5, 145.
[7] Ian Gourdon July 4, 1999
[8] Very Superior Old Pale, aged at least five years in wood
[9] I do not know what variety the grapes were, except that they were not Welch’s grape jelly flavor grapes.
[10] Liebault and Stevens
[11] Take that, Vernors!
[12] Measured using a digital thermometer.
[13] Good Eats: Switched on Baklava, aired in 2008.
[14] MacMillan, see also the documentation for the Red Wine used for this project.
[15] Culpeper, Culpeper’s Complete Herbal
[16] Culpeper, The English physitian
[17] Felter and Lloyd
[18] a spiced and sweetened wine, often served steaming hot
[19] 1272-1307
[20] Hieatt and Jones, provided by FitzMaurice

[21] From the vanillin in the wood.