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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.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”.
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]
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.
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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