This is the documentation that I used for the late 2021 Kingdom A&S competition. A competition that I was one of the winners based solely on this documentation: I was not able to attend in person, so I submitted virtually, and my jelly did not make it to the event. So, let this be a lesson: make sure that you spend as much time on your documentation as you do on your project.

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 9th Century Arabic Medicinal Jelly - 2022

Summary:

A medicinal jelly from the 9th Century Aqrabadhin of al-Kindi by Abu Yusuf Ya’qub ibn Ishaq al-Kindi.

Contains:
Grapes.
Honey
Lesser, or green, cardamom
Greater, or black, cardamom
Clove
Cinnamon
Long pepper
Saffron

Introduction:

This is my third attempt at making this jelly. The first was in reaction to discovering that a popular SCA mead recipe was actually a jelly and not a beverage.[1] My first attempt used white grapes, which did not set fully, like a modern jelly or jam. The second attempt was made with black grapes, which contain higher levels of pectin. The first and second attempts followed the original recipe, in regards to how the spices were handled. This third attempt, I will pulverize the spices and mix them into the jelly rather than steep the spices in the hot liquid to extract their oils. I will also add the saffron to the hot liquid earlier to extract more flavor.[2]

For this project, I used locally sourced red grapes. I picked this variety because it was what was available in my local grocery store. While this variety was locally grown, they were not of the Concord variety. I wanted to avoid using grapes that tasted like a commonly sold commercial jelly. I liked the flavor, sweet yet still a bit tart, with a lot of liquid. I do not know what varieties of grapes that were available in Iraq in the 9th century, but I would imagine that one would have used whatever was locally available.

Project:

This project is based on recipe 108 of Aqrabadhin of al-Kindi, from Martin Levey’s translation. The English translation is as follows:

108. Syrups, electuaries, and others. The best resat jellies are taken in the winter for a stiff neck. It is useful, with God’s help. Ten dawarig of the best juice and pulp of the grape is taken. A dawarig is four and a half ratls. It is cooked over a low fire until its foam disappears. The the {sic} best genuine honey is put in. The proportion is one ratl of honey for every five ratls {of grape juice}. It is boiled over a low fire until its foam also disappears. One half of it evaporates. Then one dirham each is taken of lesser cardamom, cardamom. Ceylonese cinnamon, clove, and long pepper. It is well pulverized and put into a fine linen cloth. Then it is thrown into the decoction after the froth has been removed. When the cooking is over, it is possible to introduce the hand into it. The powder is macerated into it strongly. It is taken out and three dirhams of saffron put into [the liquid]. It is put into flasks and the tops are stoppered. After a little sun is allowed on it, one may use it. The older it gets, the better, God willing.[3]

Page 271, of Levey’s book, defines resat jellies as, “In the East, resat is called faludhaj, and in the Maghrib sabuniyah (Dozy, I:525).” The Internet has recipes for modern resats, faludhaj, and sabuniyah, that are deserts. More like Chuckles(tm) candy or Turkish Delight. “Thicker puddings like khabis and faludhaj were made with wheat starch, rice flour, or crushed almonds, and sometimes with pureed carrots, melon, apples, or quince. Sweetened with honey, they were spread on flat platters and copiously sprinkled with powdered sugar.”[4]

It doesn’t give any dose size, or instructions on how to take. “...taken in the winter for a stiff neck”, suggests that it is rubbed on a stiff neck. This doesn’t sound correct: the end result sounds sticky and if this were a poultice, shouldn’t it at least recommend how often to change it? Other recipes, in the text, that call for poultices recommend how often to change them. My opinion was that “stiff neck” was a mis-translation and that it should be “sore throat”. That would make more sense within the context of the recipe. Although, if the text had said, “take one spoonful as needed,” it would make our job easier.

I had a conversation, about this recipe, with Baroness Sadira Bint Wassouf and she let me know that she had a few Arabic speaking students in her English as a Second Language class, and would be happy to ask one of them to take a look at the original text. I had sent her a scan of the last paragraph of the original text (the first three lines of the English text). I did not send the entire Arabic text as I did not want to take advantage of my unknown translator. The E-mail that I received back was as follows:

Dear Baron Caleb,

SO {sic} exciting to be a part of this because the translator was fascinated about how Arabic has changed. She checked and checked her translations. You were right!

Look at the three longer lines of text: the phrase at the far left of the first and third line are the same. They mean “If God wills” It is not the usual phrase “Inshallah” but one that has a similar meaning there is one very long word to the right of the first line that indicates the country of origin that was unfamiliar to the translator (names and borders of countries have changed). In the middle of the shorter (second line) is a shorter word that means “cough” or “sore throat” The whole thing basically says to take the medication for a cough or sore throat but that it is also good for other things such as “jerking” - maybe trembling, seizures, or palsy - and that if God wills, it will work. While it mentions curing “other things” it only gives the two examples.

Your translator is Fonoun Muthana, a brilliant young woman from Yemen who is a scholar in any language. She is an amazing person with deep curiosity about any new topic.

My own observation is that a term meaning “if God wills” is used in many food recipes as well. Everything in life is Inshallah. Although I cannot speak or read my own cultural language (Arabic), that concept is part of my very being. So Inshallah enjoy the result!

Such fun!

Sadira

Lady Fonoun Muthana has by deepest respect and thanks for helping. Let us dissect the recipe, line by line, and see if we can make some sense of it.

“Ten dawarig of the best juice and pulp of the grape is taken. A dawarig is four and a half ratls.”

On page 25, Martin Levey tells us that one ratl is equivalent to 406.25g, with the following caveat from the author: “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.”

1 ratl = 406.25g
45 ratls = 18281.25g
18281.25g = 40.3lbs

So, 45 ratls of grapes is about 40 pounds.

“It is cooked over a low fire until its foam disappears.”

This is somewhat, self explanatory. Cooking grape pulp does produce a lot of foam. Just put your pot off-set on your burner and the foam will move to one side of the pot, making it easier to skim off.

“The the {sic} best genuine honey is put in. The proportion is one ratl of honey for every five ratls {of grape juice}. It is boiled over a low fire until its foam also disappears. “

I do not know what is meant by “genuine” honey. Surely they didn’t have HFC/honey blends. Perhaps this could mean the best honey off of the comb. Or honey that hasn’t been watered down. Perhaps it should have read “fresh” honey, instead of “genuine.”

1 ratl of honey for each 5 of grapes.
45 / 5 = 9 ratls of honey
9 ratls = 3656.25g
3656.25g = 8.1lbs

“One half of it evaporates.”

The recipe calls for cooking the “must” until it stops foaming up and until it is reduced by half. Reducing 48 pounds of juice, pulp, and honey by half would take a long time. The low heat would let the mixture cook down without destroying the natural pectin found in grapes. Pectin is the fruit equivalent of gluten, and allows jellies to form and hold their shape and consistency.

“Then one dirham each is taken of lesser cardamom, cardamom. Ceylonese cinnamon, clove, and long pepper. It is well pulverized and put into a fine linen cloth. Then it is thrown into the decoction after the froth has been removed.”

1 dirham is 3.125g or 0.11 ounces.[5]

Take 0.11 ounces of the following:
Lesser, or green, cardamom,
Greater, or black, cardamom,
Clove,
Cinnamon,
Long pepper.
Smash or coarsely grind them and put them in a cloth tea bag, or infuser ball, and drop into the liquid.

There are three varieties of cardamom: lesser, greater, and white. White cardamom, comes from China and my sources state that it lacks the sharp flavor of the other two varieties but it adds aroma. I was unable to find any reference to white cardamom in medieval Middle Eastern recipe books, so I will assume that the second cardamom required must be greater cardamom.

“When the cooking is over, it is possible to introduce the hand into it. The powder is macerated into it strongly. It is taken out and three dirhams of saffron put into [the liquid].”

I think that this was translated out of sequence. It doesn’t flow correctly. Are we to reduce the “must” by half, remove it from the heat, and then add in the spices just long enough for the “must” to cool down enough so that you wouldn’t burn your hand? To my mind, we are told to let it cool to bath temperature before adding the saffron. 0.33 ounces of saffron threads, not powder, please. But I think that the spices, in the bag, would be more effective if they were included throughout the cooking.

“It is put into flasks and the tops are stoppered. After a little sun is allowed on it, one may use it.”

I read this as after the “must” cools completely, move it to containers that can be sealed. The word flask implies a narrow-necked container designed for liquids. But that would not be useful for a jelly. Any wide-necked container would work. Seal the container to keep bugs, yeast, or microbes out of it, and let it sit in the sun until the jelly firms up.

“The older it gets, the better, God willing.”

People who make and preserve their own jams and jellies will tell you that jars that have been “put up” for a few months, taste better than freshly made jams and jellies.

My redaction:

Take 40 pounds of fresh squeezed grape juice and pulp and place it into a non-reactive pot over low heat. Take 8.1 pounds of honey, wildflower is fine, and add it to the grape pulp. Bring up to a low boil and skim any foam from the surface. Cook until it no longer foams up. Place the pot off center on the burner so that the foam collects to one side of the pot. Cook until it reduces by half, stirring regularly so that the sugars do not burn. While the liquid is reducing, put 0.11 ounces of the following into a spice bag or a tea ball: green cardamom seeds; black cardamom seeds, cinnamon, cloves, and long pepper: all coarsely ground or crushed. Add the spice bag into the liquid. Once the liquid has reduced by half, remove from the heat and allow to cool enough so that you can put your hand into it without burning yourself. Remove the spice bag and add in 0.33 ounces of saffron threads, the good stuff. No need for a spice bag. Move into a container, or containers, that can be stoppered shut, and place it/them in a warm area. If you have a clean, brewing carboy, that will work. Leave the container(s) for a couple of hours until the jelly firms up and sets. Move into mason jars and either park in the ‘fridge or “can” them so that they will not spoil.

48 pounds of jelly is a lot of jelly. Unless you know how to preserve, and have all of the necessary equipment, this might be a bit too much for one person to deal with.

This project:

In order to experiment with this recipe, I decided to reduce the amounts to a more manageable level. We will start out with 1/16th of the amounts mentioned in the recipe.

I used:
2.5 pounds of red, seedless grapes
12 ounces of wildflower honey.
1 pod of greater, or black, cardamom,
The equivalent volume of:
Lesser, or green, cardamom,
Clove,
Cinnamon,
Long pepper.
A pinch of Sargol saffron.

I started off trying to figure out what 1/16th of 0.11 ounces would be.[6] I was unsuccessful. So I guessed. My container of greater cardamom was 0.5 ounces. I selected one pod and declared that to be the right amount. I then tried to match up the volume, by eye, of the other spices.

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. Pease use fresh spices, not pre-ground. The cloves I had in the house, nothing special about them. The saffron was a gift from family friends who brought back a lot of it from Kuwait. The cardamoms and the long pepper were purchased for the original jelly project.

Like my previous attempts, I toasted the spices, except for the cinnamon, in a frying pan before moving them to my spice grinder.[7] The heat amped up the flavors of the spices. The recipe does not call for this step, but it certainly is something that could have been done to enhance the flavor of the spices. And this might explain why such a small amount of spice was called for such a large amount of grapes. I was a little concerned about the amounts required: 0.11 ounces for 48 pounds of grape and honey? Surely that couldn’t be enough. But, when I roasted the spices my kitchen was filled the aroma of far away lands. I cooked the spices just long enough to darken the exteriors.

The previous two attempts I lightly crushed the spices in a linen spice bag with the intent to only extract the oils from them. For this attempt I wanted the full flavor of the spices to be front and center in the finished jelly. I put all of the spices into my spice grinder and blitzed them until they were power. Then poured the powder into the pot. I blitzed the cardamom in their pods to get all of their flavor. I also added the saffron to the hot liquid when I added the powered spices. In the previous two attempts, no hint of saffron could be detected when it was added while the liquid was cooling. Perhaps a longer cook time would enhance the saffron’s contribution.

 

I was going to use wine grapes, but I wasn’t looking forward to peeling the skins off a couple of pounds of them. Then I realized that while wine grapes have thick skins,[8] grapes grown for out-of-hand snacking have thin skins. And no seeds. I saw no reason why I couldn’t throw 2.5 pounds of seedless grapes into my food processor and turn them into a puree. If I had the kitchen of my 9th century counterpart, I would have plenty of servants to de-seed, peel, and smash as many grapes as I wish. The food processor is stepping in for the kitchen staff of a noble.

I converted the grapes into a slurry, moved it to my pot, then added in the honey. The honey was pasteurized and filtered and I saw no reason to add it in only after the grape slurry stopped foaming up. I used wildflower honey because that is what I had in the house. I will not take the time, in this paper, to explain my opinion of honey farming in the middle ages, except to say that the bee industry of today, which can move hives from one field of mono-crops to another, did not exist in the SCA time period: hives were near farm lands and gardens and a variety of crops were grown simultaneously. This means that the bees, which collected nectar from every available source, produced a blend of honey, not a singular variety. Clover or wildflower honey, I feel, is closer to period honey, than buckwheat, rosemary, apple wood, sage, lavender or other specific varieties.

 

I also increased the amount of honey from my previous two attempts; from 8 ounces to 12 ounces, or one small bear.[9] I did this for three reasons: 1) The grapes I used were more tart than the grapes I used in my two previous attempts and I wished to increase the sweetness. 2) I wanted to see if increasing the sugar would help the jelly better set. 3) I did not want to keep 4 ounces of honey in my pantry: it is already filled with mostly empty honey containers.[10]

I turned the burner to medium-high and started stirring. 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 iron pot adds or takes away from any period cooking vessel. After about 15 minutes, I had collected all of the foam and scum from the surface of the liquid, or pushed it up onto the sides of the pot. I then added my spice powder and saffron. I used a silicone spatula with serrations on one side; I used those serrations to measure the depth of the liquid and to tell me when I hit the half way mark. I backed the temperature down to medium, as medium-high was causing the liquid to boil too hard. It took about 45 minutes to reduce down by half. I turned the heat off and let it sit for 15 minutes.

 

 
I let the proto-jelly sit for another 20 minutes before moving to a Rubbermaid container.[11] I was going to use mason jars, as I did in my previous attempts, but I had not purchased new lids for the jars that I already had. The proto-jelly filled up most of a 2 quart container. The container sat on the counter for another hour, and then was moved into the refrigerator.

When I put the proto-jelly into the container, it had the consistency of apple sauce. After an hour, it had firmed up into a jelly, but not as firm as a store bought jelly, or a home-made one with added pectin. But, still firm enough to be scooped up with a fork and firmer than the first attempt in which I had used white grapes. After a day in the ‘fridge, it had achieved a decent jam like consistency. Technically, this would be a jam and not a jelly since I left the skins in the mix.

As to flavor: quite nice. It does have the consistency of chunky grape jelly,[12] with the skins giving it a nice texture and an almost crunch. More like a home-made preserve of jam than a modern jelly. The cinnamon and cardamom play well together, giving the jelly a rich, peppery-cinnamony taste. The cloves are there, but they take a back seat to the other spices, giving a nice numbing burst in the back of the mouth and throat. The saffron, like in the first two attempts, is lost under the other spices. It is tasty off of a fork as well as spread on toast. This jelly is not as sweet as store-bought jelly, since the only sugar in it came from the honey and the grapes. It is less sweet than Welch’s No Added Sugar grape jelly, most likely because Welch’s uses a variety of high sugar content grape for their jelly. Unfortunately, I no longer have any of the first two attempts left for comparison: I had eaten all of the first attempt and the last of the second attempt got contaminated and mold started to grow on the surface, and I had to discard it.

The flavor of this attempt is more intense than the first two attempts; due to the integration of the spices into the jelly. My first two attempts had the spices contained in a linen spice bag, like the original recipe states. I surmise that the period jelly would have had a more intense flavor due to a longer cook time. It took about an hour or so to cook my jelly down by half. The original recipe called for 40 pounds of grapes and 8 pounds of honey. It would have taken several hours to cook it down by half. Several hours of cooking would have extracted more oils and flavors from the spices. I am uncertain of the saffron, though: there isn’t enough to color the jelly[13] and it is undetectable under the cardamom, cloves, and long pepper. I don’t know why it was added. I do not think anyone would notice it’s absence. Perhaps it was added for some medicinal purpose that was not mentioned in the recipe.

Since no dosage is listed, I cannot tell you how much to take for a sore throat. One thing that peeked my curiosity was the size of this recipe. 2.5 pounds of grapes, and etc, filled a 2 quart container three quarters of the way up. If I had used the original amounts, I would have filled about 40 mason jars. This is a lot of jelly. Particularly for a cough remedy. Was the sick person expected to eat it 3 meals a day? Or was the expectation that if one person, in the household, got sick, everyone in the household would as well, so make enough for a whole family.

Aside from coughs and sore throats, this jelly is delicious. I found very similar jelly recipes on the Internet, although none with the same mixture of spices. These types of jellies are used as the filling for a number of deserts. I found one called, “Baghdad Lasagna” which calls for a jelly made of apples, quinces, honey, saffron, sumac, and rosewater, layered between filo dough. My cough remedy would work equally well as a desert. I can report that it plays well with peanut butter and I recommend equal amounts of chunky peanut butter and this jelly on a toasted bagel.

I do not know how effective this would be as a sore-thoat aid; the cloves would provide a numbing affect and the smooth jelly base would help as well. I don’t think that this would be as effective as a cough drop,[14] but if your throat hurt so much that you had trouble swallowing food, this would be a good treatment to keep you from staving. Much like ice cream is given to kids after tonsillectomies. I would imagine that the spices were put into a spice bag so that there were no chunks of spices in the jelly that could scratch one’s throat. But, with my electric spice grinder I was able to turn my spices, including my cinnamon into fine dust.


[1] Ronsen, 2019
[2] One could say that my project is jam-packed with spices.
[3] p120-2
[4] Goldstein, p43.
[5] Levey, p25
[6] 0.0069 ounces

[7] An electric coffee grinder. I could have used a mortar and pestle but the spice grinder reduced everything to a powder in seconds.
[8] You can insult them all day long and all they will do is let out a little wine.
[9] It irritates me that honey is sold in bear shaped containers and not bee shaped containers. Bears do not make honey. They aren’t even wearing bee-keeping outfits.
[10] All bears. No bees.
[11] I needed to clean and sterilize the container.
[12] It is not silky smooth like store-bought jellies, since I scooped it into the jars and did not inject it under pressure.
[13] Certainly not with red grapes.
[14] Of which we do have recipes from this time period.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

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

Elska á Fjárfelli. “Medieval Arabic Alcoholic Honey Beverages.” A most copious and exact compendium of mediaeval secretes collected by THL Elska á Fjárfelli. Posted, Thursday, January 19, 2017. bookeofsecretes.blogspot.com/2017/01/medieval-arabic-alcoholic-honey.html.

Faith Freedom International. “Mohammed’s Tipple”...., forum09.faithfreedom.org/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=14105&start=0.

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

Gordon, Bruce R. (Forester Nigel FitzMaurice) “An Arab Mead.” Tournaments Illumanted. Issue 140, Fall 2011. p17-8

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.

Ronsen, Jeremy Caleb. “Not an Arab Mead.” Not an Arab Mead, 20 Aug. 2019, calebreynolds.blogspot.com/2019/08/not-arab-mead.html.

Sadira Bint Wassouf. (May 25, 2019). Personal interview.

Sadira Bint Wassouf. “Re: Arabic Text.” Message to Caleb Reynolds. 7/16/19. E-mail.

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

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.

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

 Scroll Text - Aaliz de Gant - Millrind 2022

Kingdom of AEthelmearc - Service Award

Byron and Ariella King and Queen of Sylvan AEthelmarc and the Seven Great Baronies here assembled, to Our Trusty and Wellbeloved Order of the Millrind, on the reading of Our Receipt, greetings. We will and charge you, Our Order, for the Service of Aaliz de Gant in the realm of Equestrian arts and of those skills as Chatelaine of Steltonwald, as well as tireless work running War Practice, that you deliver upon the said Aaliz de Gant a badge bearing the arms of your Order, to wit, Fieldless, a millrind argent, as well as this receipt which shall be Our Warrant for full and complete entry into the Noble Order of the Millrind from this day unto the end of days. Given by Our hands in the 57th Year of the Society, at War Practice, in Our Shire of Steltonwald. 

inspired by Warrant (Sign Manual) for an imprest at the receipt of the Exchequer from Henry VII 10/16/1498

Scroll Text - Solvej of House Helios Furion - Award of Arms

Kingdom of AEthelmearc - Award of Arms

Each and all shall know the words of Byron and Ariella, King and Queen of Sylvan AEthelmearc. Forasmuch as We, of Our special grace, in consideration of the true and faithful service which our welbeloved subject Solvej of House Helios Furion has done unto Us and Our Forebears, upon the archery range, behind Our Thrones, before and after events, and as a historian of visual images. So pleased are We that We, on this day, do award and affirm Arms unto the said Solvej of House Helios Furion and command you to take your first steps upon the path of Nobility to visit the College of Hearlds and create such Arms that you and you alone shall bear. Done in front of the Peers, Nobles, and Commons assembled at Our War Practice in the the 57th Year of the Society, in Our Shire of Steltonwald. 

Signet Letter for the Issue of Letters under the Privy Seal only, Edward IV 11/20/1483

 Scroll Text - Thalia Papillon - Millrind 2022

Kingdom of AEthelmearc - Service Award

Come hear the words of the King and Queen of Sylvan AEthelmearc to Our most beloved Thalia Papillon, Lady. Since We have had consultation and meeting with the Peers, Barons, Baronesses, Lords, Ladies, Nobles and other principal people of Our Realm, with regard to the quantity and quality of service which you hath done for Ourselves, Our predecessors, and Our Realm, not the least of which would include autocrating, marshaling, sitting at the MoL table, and standing as a Royal Guard and Retainer. We are so moved to take action on this day, to Give and to Grant you entrance into the Most Noble order of the Millrind and to give to you, from Our own hands, the badge of said Order so that all may see and know of your new station. Furthermore do We Give and Grant you the following arms: Per pale Or and argent, a butterfly and on a chief azure three comedy masks each per pale argent and Or. In witness do We, Byron and Ariella, the aforesaid King and Queen of Sylvan AEthelmearc, commit Our hand to paper at Our Crown Tournament in Our Barony of Blackstone Mountain, the Seventh day of May, AS57.

inspired by the 1295 Summons of Representatives of Shires and Towns to Parliament

 Scroll Text - Nicolo Loredan da Venezia - Sycamore 2022

Kingdom of AEthelmearc - A&S Award

Know you all that hear these words that the feats of skill and labor of Nicolo Loredan da Venezia has has been well observed. His knowledge of Aggripa and Giganti and all things a a fencer might know has pleased the minds and hearts of the Crown. Thus do We, Bryon, King by Right of Arms, and Ariella, Queen of the swift sword, are moved to induct Nicolo into the Most Noble order of the Sycamore and command that he wear the badge of the said Order so that all may know of Our command. We forbid that any one, with rash daring, infringe Our decree or in any way attempt to violate it; and We corroborate this, Our decree, signed by Our Hand and witnessed by those who are present on this the 7th day of May AS 57 at Our Crown Tourney. 

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.

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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.

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