The following are "bullet" notes from a class I teach about medieval cordials. Since distillation of drinking alcohol is illegal in the USA, we have to fake the end product. The vast majority of cordials I've encountered, over the years, in A&S competitions and brewing roundtables, are vodka infusions based on modern recipes. We, as SCA brewers, can do better. I do understand the concept of "Creative Anachronism" but I believe that there is a huge difference between using modern equipment (stainless steel, digital thermometers) to make a medieval product and ignoring anything period, all together. I have heard from many brewers that they use modern ingredients and recipes because they taste better than period ones. That might be true, but it is hardly a method of producing and perfecting period beverages.
Here are my 10 points for faking any period cordial without distilling it yourself.
1) Use period recipes. While there are a plethora of modern cordial recipes, we are a historical organization and we should be attempting to produce a medieval product. There are plenty of period recipes to choose from, you just have to look. Curye on Inglysch, The Johnstone Manuscript, The Sloane Manuscript 521, L'Agriculture et Maison Rustique, Harleian Manuscript 2378, Delightes for Ladies, The English Housewife are all cookbooks, from 1615 and earlier, that contain cordial recipes.
2) Use good quality ingredients. Fresh is best. If the ingredients came out of your garden, then bonus points to you. If you have to use dried ingredients, then make sure that they are as young as possible. Don't use "el cheap-o" brand dried herbs or spices that you found in the back of a shelf in a store. There is a big difference between fresh, ground nutmeg and generic nutmeg powder.
3) Match your ingredients as best as possible. Make reasonable substitutions: spearmint for peppermint; California sage for French sage. White rose petals for red. Do not substitute an orange for an apple, or vodka for wine, or cilantro for parsley. I'm not talking about documenting various ingredients from multiple sources in order to create a new beverage; I am talking about taking a period recipe that calls for wine, cinnamon, sage and cloves and producing a beverage that is made with vodka, sugar, chilies and Frank's hot sauce (yes, I have seen this entered into an SCA A&S competition). Period chocolate cannot be substituted with Hershey's syrup. Vodka cannot be substituted for wine. Pork cannot be substituted for sturgeon. If you use a recipe that calls for strawberries, use modern strawberries if you cannot collect any wild ones, but note in your documentation that you made that change. Do not substitute blueberries.
4) If you cannot make your own wine, or have access to someone else's home made wine, use wine from the region the recipe is from. Use German wine for German recipes, French wine for French recipes, Spanish wines for Spanish recipes, Italian wine for Italian recipes and French wines for English recipes. No one had anything nice to say about English wine. If you wish to use "imported" wine, please take the time to demonstrate that the wine you used was found in the country where the cookbook was written. There is plenty of documentation showing that England and Scotland imported a lot of French wine. If your recipe calls for sherry, use Spanish sweet, or cream, Sherry.
5) Use un-aged, un-flavored "white" brandy to simulate your distilled wine. If you cannot find "white" brandy, use the least aged brandy you can find. As brandy ages, it will pick up some vanilla flavor from the oak in which it is stored. The longer it ages, the stronger the vanilla flavor becomes. Just document the added flavor.
6) If you are making a cordial based on distilled ale, or Usquebath (whiskey), I recommend using moonshine. Legal moonshine is readily available at lots of liquor stores and is closer to period whiskey than vodka. If you have a variety, pick one made without rye. Most moonshine I've seen in liquor stores are based on bourbon recipes, and can made from a blend of grains: barley, wheat, corn and rye. The rye gives a distinct flavor, so, if you have a choice, avoid it.
7) Make two beverages: the first you should follow the recipe up to distillation. This will be the "before" portion of your project. Then infuse the same ingredients into brandy (or moonshine) to simulate the post distillation liquid. Document that since you cannot distill, legally, you are producing the before and after products.
8) If you don't know what something is, don't use it. Cordials were medicine and recipes called for plants, herbs and spices to treat various medical issues. Most of these recipes assumed that the reader would know what a plant was and what part of it to use. One recipe from the Harleian Manuscript 2378 called for "red rose, germander (which some call capillus veneris), fennel, ivy, vervain, eyebright, endive and betony". I assume that one would use leaves and petals, but I could be wrong. Is the ivy mentioned the same as the ivy that grows near my house? According to a Google search, germander and capillus veneris are two completely different things: one is a plant and the other a fern. Which one do I use? I honestly do not know, so, I would use neither. One last point on this note: don't use things that are dangerous. Do not use poppy leaf juice. Do not add lead. Do not add anything that you might be allergic to. And please, if this is for a gift or an A&S competition, list the common names for everything you have used.
9) Only add sugar if your recipe calls for sugar. Sugar, in the SCA time period, was expensive. In 1464 1 pound of sugar cost 2s in London. The equivalent of 516 Pounds or $860 in today's money. By 1700 a pound of Sugar cost 7s a pound, in London, but the modern price dropped to around 28 pounds or about $46 in today's money. Use white sugar if the recipe calls for "candy sugar", otherwise use piloncillo, or Mexican unrefined, brown sugar.
10) Document everything you do and explain why you made any changes. It is not enough to say that you used fennel instead of sage: why did you make the substitution? It could be that you hate the smell of fennel. Or that you grabbed the wrong container. Or that you made it to use up excess sage. Document your reason. I have seen far too many pieces of documentation where a period recipe is listed, but the redaction lists items that don't appear in the original recipe. From a judge's perspective, it appears that either the brewer documented the wrong period recipe or that the brewer didn't care enough to do proper documentation. To return to our fennel/sage example. If you have a period cordial recipe that calls for fennel and another that calls for sage from the same source or time period, then you are all set; list both recipes. But, if you have a period cordial recipe that calls for fennel and you substitute a vanilla bean with no explanation as to why you made the switch and list not a single source about period vanilla, then you can expect poor marks in an A&S competition. Think of it this way: If you were documenting a period pie crust that called for lard and you used Crisco in its place, it is up to you to explain why. Now, you could document that while Crisco is not period, you keep a kosher house and cannot eat pork products. This is perfectly acceptable. But, if you use Crisco and don't explain why you didn't use lard, judges are going to call you on it.
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