beverages-msg - 3/4/08
Period beverages in general. Alcoholic drinks.
NOTE: See these other files: beverages-NA-msg, brewing-msg, beer-msg, mead-msg, wine-msg, cordials-msg, cider-msg, p-bottles-msg, perry-msg, bev-distilled-msg, jalabs-msg, caudls-posets-msg.
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NOTICE -
This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.
This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org
I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter.
The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors.
Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s).
Thank you,
Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous
Stefan at florilegium.org
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From: CONS.ELF at AIDA.CSD.UU.SE ("]ke Eldberg")
Date: 10 Jan 90 03:27:05 GMT
Greetings from William de Corbie!
I want to introduce you, dear gentles, to glogg. Everyone should have lots
of glogg. Glogg is a blessing unto mankind. Once you have had a true glogg,
you will understand.
What is glogg?
Glogg is the best drink in the world. Glogg is essential to anyone living
in Sweden or some other place where winters are cold. Coming in from the
freezing white world of snow and wind, breathing white fog, with ice in
your beard, there is nothing like a big cup of really hot, strong glogg.
Actually, glogg is spelled with two dots above the o, and the o is pro-
nounced like the vowel in "birth", or the French "eu".
Some ignorant people think that glogg is just "mulled wine", or similar to
the German "gluhwein". That is like comparing crystal to clay. Most Swedes
buy their glogg from the state-owned monopoly alcohol company. Theirs is
quite good, but for the real glogg lovers it is not quite lethal enough.
It only holds about 18 percent (per weight).
There are many different recipes, of which I will only give you one. But
it is among the best:
Mix 10 g whole cardamoms,10 g whole cloves, 25 g whole cinnamon sticks
with 1 litre vodka.
Leave standing for 3-4 days.
Strain the vodka. Mix with:
1 bottle cheap red wine, 1/2 bottle non-vintage port
Add syrup sugar made from 250 g castor sugar and a cup of water.
Add 10 cl brandy and the juice of 1/2 lemon.
(Some people prefer to use brandy instead of the vodka. In olden tymes,
the spices were put in the wine, which was heated. Then, lumps of hard
sugar were placed on a grille above the pot and burning brandy or vodka
was poured over them to add sweetness and strength. I doubt that this
procedure improves anything.)
Serving: Have your servants prepare the glogg while you take a long walk
through the snow, in temperatures well below freezing (-20 centigrade is
about right). Make sure you are really cold and that you long intensely
for warmth and comfort.
Meanwhile, the servants should heat the glogg until it is real hot but
not boiling. Then pour it in small glasses or cups containing a few
almonds and raisins, and provide a teaspoon for eating the almonds &
raisins. There should also be Swedish pepparkakor (ginger bisquits) to
nibble on.
Have the servants give you the glogg at the gate of your castle. Your
fingers should be so numb that you can hardly hold the cup - then it will
really be great. Drink one cup there, proceed inside and have a second cup
as soon as you have taken your winter garments off. Sit down in front of a
roaring fire and have another 2-3 cups. If you don't have a fire, a hot
sauna will do.
Enjoy!
William de Corbie
From: karplus at turtle.ucsc.edu (Kevin Karplus)
Date: 11 Jan 90 18:25:37 GMT
The recipe given by William de Corbie for Glogg looks a little strange to me.
All the recipes I have see are based on aquavit, not vodka or brandy.
The caraway flavor is (to my mind) an important addition.
Don't use too cheap a red wine--use a decent jug wine. If you wouldn't drink
the wine by itself, use it for vinegar, not mulled wine or gloegg.
There is a good recipe (for "Profesorn's gloeg") in the old Time-Life
Scandanavian cookbook.
By the way, is there any evidence that gloegg is a period drink? I know that
people were capable of distilling alcohol, but is this particular hot punch
that old? It looks a lot like a 18th or 19th century invention to me.
Knud Kaukinen (AoA, Maunche) Kevin Karplus
inactive in the West teaching at UC Santa Cruz
From: ddfr at tank.uchicago.edu (david director friedman)
Date: 17 Feb 90 03:00:21 GMT
Organization: University of Chicago
Some time ago, someone posted a query as to what drinks would be
period to serve at a feast. Responses included fruit drinks and
herbal teas. To the best of my knowledge, there is no evidence
for either.
Fermented fruit juices, such as cider and perry, were drunk in
period, but I have not yet come across any references to
drinking unfermented fruit juice. There are Islamic drinks that
use fruit juice as an ingredient, such as the Pomegranate drink
we serve at our bardic circle at Pennsic, but all the ones I
know of are made by mixing fruit juice with sugar or honey,
boiling it down to a syrup, then diluting that in hot or cold
water. The result is nothing at all like a glass of orange juice
or apple juice.
So far as "herb teas,"I again know of no evidence that they were
used as drinks in period, although I believe they were used
medicinally. Note, incidentally, that they would not have been
called "teas," since that term originally applied specifically
to tea, which comes into use in western europe after 1600.
I am making this posting for two reasons. First, some who read
the responses may have taken it for granted that they were
right. Second, if someone does have evidence that either
unfermented fruit juices or "herb teas" were used as drinks in
period, I would be very interested to see it.
To get back to the original query, some possible drinks are:
The Islamic drinks, of which the best known in the society is
Sekanjabin. There are a bunch of them in a 13th c. Andalusian
cookbook.
Barley water. I think I have seen references to this, but have
never made it; does anyone have information?
Beer, ale, etc. There are some 16th century English recipes.
Hops come into use in England in late period (earlier on the
continent), so if you wanted something pre-fourteenth century
English it would be unhopped.
Wine. In classical antiquity, and I think also in period, they
sometimes drank watered wine. I am not sure what proportions
would have been used. If you dilute wine in ten times its volume
of water, the result is an inexpensive colored drink with some
taste to it, but I have no idea whether that is a period mix.
Mead.
Cariadoc (David Friedman)
Grey Gargoyles, MK
From: laura at ux1.lbl.gov (Laura Mcvay)
Date: 30 Jan 91 01:42:34 GMT
Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley
This was published in the West Kingdom Brewers Guild Newsletter.
Here is the recipie for the Weak Honey Drink:
Materials-
11 pts water
16 oz white uncooked honey
1 tablespoon sliced fresh ginger
0.5 teaspoon dried orange rind
0.5 teaspoons ale yeast (Whitbread's)
0.5 teaspoons yeast nutrient
Procedure-
(1) Clean up and disinfect. (Remember, this is a fermented drink, and
we don't want any wild yeasts)
(2) Heat the water and stir in the honey gradually. Digbie
uses tTa at term "laving".
(3) Gently boil the honey/water mixture for about 2-3 hours. A white
crust will form at the top of the solution; skim this off periodically.
(4) When no more crust forms at the top of the pot, add the ginger.
Let the mixture boil for about 10 minutes.
(5) Add the orange rind and boil for 5 minutes.
(6) Take the wort off the fire and allow to cool.
(7) When the wort has cooled, add the ale yeast and nutrient. Fit
a fermentation lock to a 1 gallon jar.
(8) Let the mixture ferment for about 48 hours. A foam should
form at the top of the wort, that's ok because the yeast is top
fermenting.
(9) Rack into "champagne" bottles. Make sure that you use champagne
bottles, because this mixture is still fermenting, and there have
been cases of exploding bottles- and that can be lethal.
(10) Age for three days and drink. You DEFINETELY want to put this
into the refrigerator after a few days to slow down the fermentation
and reduce the chance of broken bottles. This drink will keep for
about a month.
This recipie is adapted from Sir Kenelm Digbie's book
"The Closet Opened" (p. 107 in my edition)
which was published by his son in about 1660.
This book contains many recipies for meads and wines, and is
considered to be a period reference.
In my adaptation, I have taken
some of the suggestions that His Grace, Duke Cariadoc of the Bow
made in his book, "A Miscellany,"
(specifically, the use of more water).
Good Luck.
Laura Rydal of Grasmere
From: dave at metapro.DIALix.oz.au (David Eddy)
Date: 11 Mar 91 02:47:59 GMT
Organization: MetaPro Systems, Perth, Western Australia
Olafr Thordarson --- Herald _--_|\
Squire to Sir Bran of Lochiel / \
---> \_.--._/
Shire of Arx Draconis - Principality of Lochac - West Kingdom v
-----
Unto the folk of the Rialto, Greetings:
Recently a missive appeared noting that there seemed to be few non-
alcoholic beverages available from the mediaeval period. I would
humbly submit a possible explanation for this state of affairs, with
the following disclaimer: I have not researched this. What follows
is based on hearsay, and is put forward for discussion. It is also
intended to describe _European_ conditions, which were rather
different to (say) Arabic or Japanese conditions of the time.
The choice of basic beverages available to the person of that time was
rather limited: Water, milk, ale, (for the wealthy) mead, or (in
warmer climes) wine. Due to sanitation problems, water whether from
wells or streams, was often of questionable quality (think of the
Ganges River in India). Milk was only available for a part of the
year because cows and other milk animals were underfed, and usually
encouraged to be scavengers (this applies mainly to cities and towns).
Mead was scarce because, until the beehive was invented, pretty well
the only place that bees had to make hive was in a hollow tree. To
harvest honey, the gatherer would usually break open the tree,
destroying any chance for the bees to re-make the hive once the
gatherer had removed the honey-bearing old one. This had the effect
of limiting the amount of honey produced due to continuous destruction
of the bees' habitats.
Wine was relatively scarce in northern Europe because it had to be
imported (and thus was relatively expensive), although it was very
common in Italy and similar places.
This leaves beer or ale. Apparently the typical peasant drank what
would today be considered truly _horrendous_ amounts of beer, even
though said beer was weak (and of course flat). Much attention would
be given to finding new things to drink.
I don't know whether fruit juices were used in period, as opposed to
actually consuming the fruit itself (and thus gaining nutrition as
well as liquid). How many oranges/apples does it take to make a glass
of juice? I suspect that such wastage would have restricted its use,
if any, to the relatively wealthy.
Any comments on the above, dear Fisherfolk?
By my hand on this Eleventh day of May,
Olafr Thordarson.
================= David Eddy (dave at metapro.DIALix.oz.au) ======== _--_|\ ===
MetaPro Systems Pty Ltd.|Tel: +61 9 362 9355 / \
328 Albany Hwy, Vic Park|Fax: +61 9 472 3337 \_.--._/
Western Australia 6100 |This .sig still under construction v
From: haslock at rust.zso.dec.com (Nigel Haslock)
Date: 11 Mar 91 23:51:15 GMT
Organization: DECwest, Digital Equipment Corp., Bellevue WA
In article <1991Mar11.024759.13349 at metapro.DIALix.oz.au>, dave at metapro.DIALix.oz.au (David Eddy) writes:
>
> Wine was relatively scarce in northern Europe because it had to be
> imported (and thus was relatively expensive), although it was very
> common in Italy and similar places.
My source for this is 'A Baronial Household in the Thirteenth Century".
On the other hand, I do not have it open in front of me so I may have
misremembered some of the details.
The author claims that in the mid 1200's, England was importing some
3 million gallons of wine a year. The household accounts suggest that
most of the household was rationed to a quart of wine a day. This does
not equate to scarce in my mind.
>
> This leaves beer or ale. Apparently the typical peasant drank what
> would today be considered truly _horrendous_ amounts of beer, even
> though said beer was weak (and of course flat). Much attention would
> be given to finding new things to drink.
I beg leave to differ on this point too. The assizes set the price of bread
at approximately a farthing a pound (a farthing being a quarter of a penny).
The assizes set the price of beer at somewhere between 2 and 3 farthings a
gallon. Given that skilled labourers earned about 8 farthings a day, I don't
see much scope for peasants swilling prodigious amounts of ale. If ale is the
only potable liquid, volumes are going to be higher than are common today.
For the sake of argument, add up your total liquids intake for a day. Then
add 50% to compensated for the diuretic quality of alcohol. Then ask yourself
if this is a horrendous amount.
I also doubt that the average peasant was interested in finding new things
to drink. I suggest that they followed the modern pastime of arguing about
who makes the best beer. The nobility were clearly engaged in wine snobbery,
although by some other name.
I am not sure why you believe that medieval beer was both weak and flat.
They had barrel making down to a fine art and draught beer will happily
condition in the barrel. The strength of a batch of beer usually depends on the
time it is left to ferment. Strong beers just take a few more days to brew,
provided that the brewer managed to get enough sugar from the malt.
Brewing from grain takes a little care in boiling the wort and some effort
during the sparging, but it is not difficult.
The biggest difference between then and now is the use of hops.
> I don't know whether fruit juices were used in period, as opposed to
> actually consuming the fruit itself (and thus gaining nutrition as
> well as liquid). How many oranges/apples does it take to make a glass
> of juice? I suspect that such wastage would have restricted its use,
> if any, to the relatively wealthy.
The author of the book I mentioned could not find any reference to mead in the
century she was treating. She found one reference to cider, which we assume
to mean the fermented variety.
The other omission was small beer. Since she was working from a set of
household accounts and only things that cost money were recorded, the
production of small beer could have occured without comment (the accounts
do mention the hire of a brew mistress).
Small beer is produced by the same process that is used for beer. The
difference is that the grain used is the grain that has already been used to
make beer. Thus most of the sugars have already been extracted. The low
sugar content means that a low alcohol content beer is produced, about 1% by
volume. I assume that this was just enough the disinfect the water.
> Olafr Thordarson.
Fiacha of Glencar,
Brewer, Weaver, Lacemaker, Carpenter, Smith, ...
Aquaterra, AnTir
From: haslock at rust.zso.dec.com (Nigel Haslock)
Date: 10 Aug 91 02:06:25 GMT
Organization: DECwest, Digital Equipment Corp., Bellevue WA
Aqua Compositor
--------------
This recipe is from Sir Hugh Plat's "delights for Ladies" (1609) but is
essentially the same as the recipe in Thomas Cogan's "The Haven of Health"
(1584).
Take a gallon of Gascoin wine; of Ginger, Galingale, Cinnamon, Nutmegs and
Graines, Anniseeds, Fennel seeds and Carroway seeds, of aeach a dram; of
Sage, Mints, red Roses, Thyme, Pellitory, Rosemary, Wild Thyme, Camomil,
Lavender, of each a handful; bray the spices small, and bruise the herbs,
letting them macerate 12 hours, stiring it now and again, then distil by
a Limbecke of pewter, keeping the first clear water that cometh, by itself,
and so likewise the second. You shall draw about a pint of the bettor sort,
from every gallon of wine.
This modern recipe was developed by Baroness Tamar the Gypsy, Baroness
Carillon in 1983.
Take a pint of cheap, unflavoured brandy.
Add one and a half teaspoons of each of the following
cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cardamom, aniseed, caraway seed, fennel seed,
sage, thyme, and ground galingale.
Add a small handful of each of the following
mint, wild thyme, rosemary, lavender, red rose petals, chamomile, and
pelitory of the wall.
Let it soak either overnight or for 24 hours, stirring occaisionally.
Strain out the herbs through a cheese cloth and bottle the liquid.
The distilling step was omitted both because the feds consider is to be an
illegal activity and also to avoid any possibility of lead poisoning. In
period gascony also shipped cheap brandy to England, thus the choice of cheap
brandy as a base. The presence of additional flavorings in this cordial
seemed silly (it's a medicine and its supposed to taste nasty :-) ).
Food grade lavender can sometimes be found in health food stores.
Galingale can sometimes be found in occult book and supply stores. It is
also to be found in indonesian food stores. The FDA approves of galingale for
"flavoring alcohol"
Mother of Thyme can replace Wild Thyme and is a somewhat common ground