HERB - horehound

Gaylin Walli g.walli at infoengine.com
Mon Oct 12 06:31:31 PDT 1998


Baroness Leonora imparted some very useful adivice that I missed
before leaving work this weekend and finished with:

>let us know how it works!

At your command, good Baroness, this is what I did...

Knowing full well the good and helpful qualities of horehound,
I proceeded to obtain some. My supply had dwindled and a
member of our local herb guild gave me some that she had grown
in her own garden for the purposes of helping smokers with coughs
that needed curing during their quitting stages.

I emptied two half pint jars of unjelled concord grape syrup
(originally inteneded to be made into concord grape jelly)
into a non-reactive saucepan and brought the heat up until I
could see very small bubbles forming on the outside edge of
the pan's contents.

To this I added approximately 2 tablespoons of dried horehound
leaves and stems, covered the pan, and continued to heat on low
for approximately 2 hours. After two hours I tasted the syrup
to ensure that the horehound had started to exude into the
syrup (I was afraid the sugar might impede this process). It
tasted absolutely vile, thus confirming its success.

To combat the vile taste, I added two more herbs known for their
ability to help heal the lungs and assist in soothing coughs.
Two flat tablespoons of dried thyme leaves and two flat tablespoons
of lemon balm were stirred into the syrup, covered, and heated
for another 45 minutes.

At this point, I filtered the dried herbs out of the syrup. I
assumed this would be difficult due to the stickiness of the
mixture, but I found it was actually a bit easier than straining
tea. The mixture still tasted vile. :)

Again to combat the taste, I added exactly one cup unprocessed
honey to the syrup and stirred until the honey was incorporated.
I tasted the mix again and the falvor had radically changed,
resembling my memories of horehound candy, though with the
addition of a thyme scent. I did not have any horehound candy
on hand to compare.

I then proceeded to dose my mother-in-law (who has smoker's
cough) and my husband (who has a lingering cough from a cold)
and both seemed to think that the syrup far surpassed any
over-the-counter concoction they could purchase in the store,
even with the lingering aftertaste of horehound still in their
mouths.

And neither of them coughed for the rest of the evening. :)

I'd say the syrup was a success. Now if I can just find my documents
on period syrup making, I'd say I was on my way to an A&S project.
Thanks for the advice and the hints, and thanks everyone, for
the encouragement!

Jasmine
Jasmine de Cordoba, Midrealm, g.walli at infoengine.com

"Si enim alicui placet mea devotio, gaudebo; si autem
nulli placet, memet ipsam tamen juvat quod feci."
-- Hroswith of Gandersheim
============================================================================
Go to http://lists.ansteorra.org/lists.html to perform mailing list tasks.



More information about the Herbalist mailing list