SC - Honey Brandy

[Sarah Elmore]

I hope this message reaches you, Robert the Bald.

You question is, is the Glogg recipe period, yes? The short answer is
no, that diversiy of spices are not found in one drink recipe. However,
you can justify your family recipe by lumping together several "period"
sources. One really good source for spiced wines with brandy added is 
_The Earliest Printed Book on Wine_ originally by Arnald of Villanova
(1235-1311). Translated by Henry E. Sigerist, M.D.. Published by
Schuman's, New York, 1943. This is a translation of the 1478 German
edition. Arnald writes about lots of diffrent types of spiced wines and
(a little) about thier preperation techniques. For you, his wonderfully
vauge instructions are perfect.

Page 41 <begin quote>
A wine to which you can give, if you wish, any taste you like. It is
worthy of a count, and is particularly appropriate for gentlemen who
want to show what a variety of marvelous wines they have....Briefly
spoken the matter is this. You shall keep herbs or spices, whichever you
like, for one day and one night in brandy so that the power of these
things be incorporated in the brandy.  It will assume the taste and
flavor of those spices or herbs. Put a little of this brandy into the
wine that you intend to drink, and the wine will acquire the taste and
flavor of the substance.<end quote>

More documentation for adding brandy to wine for drinking:
Hieatt, Constance and Butler, Sharon. editors and translators. _Curye on
Inglysch: English Culinary Manuscripts of the Fourteenth Century
(Including the Forme of Cury)_. Published for the Early English Text
Society by Oxford University Press. London, England 1985 ISBN
0-19-722409. 
Page 148 V: Goud Cookery written about 1390CE.
<begin quote>Potus clarrti pro domino. Take of canel I lb. as it cometh
out of the bale; of gyngyuer, xii unce in the same maner; iii quarter of
a lb. of pepir; ii unce & a half of greynes; iii unce & a half of
clowis; ii unce & a half of galyngale; ii unce of coliaundir; a quarter
of a pynte of aqua ardaunt; with iii galouns of hony; rescett for xx
galouns of clarrey.<end quote>

My interpretation:
4 A Sweet Wine Drink for a Lord. Take 1 pound of cinnamon as it comes
out of the bale; 7 ounces of ginger in the same manner; .75 of a pound
of pepper, 2 ounces of long pepper, 2.5 ounces of grains of Paris, 3.5
ounces of cloves, 2.5 ounce of galingal, 2 ounces of caraway, 2 ounces
of mace, 2 ounces of nutmeg, 2 ounces of coriander seed, a quarter pint
of aqua ardaunt (wine brandy); with 3 gallons of honey: this recipe is
for 20 gallons of spiced wine

Most of the ingredients you use are "period." Rasin wine is no problem,
neither are most of the spices you use. Cardamon is a little unusual,
but it appears in Le Ménagier De Paris. (see below)

Another quote of Arnald, Page 34
<begin quote>Raisin wine is prepared thus: Take 3 pounds of fat raisins,
2 ounces of peeled, well ground cinnamon. Boil this with an amount of
must and thereafter pour it into a cask of must. It clarifies in 12 days
and is then good and tasty.<end quote>

_Le Ménagier De Paris circa_. 1393. Coulton, GC and Power, Eileen,
Editors and Translators. Published as The Goodman Of Paris by George
Routledge and Sons, Ltd., London. 1928. Page 299-300
<begin quote> For a quart or a quarter of hippocras by the measure of
Beziers, Carcassonne or Montpellier, take five dram of fine cinnamon,
selected and peeled; white ginger selected and pared 3 drams; of cloves,
cardamom, mace, galingale, nutmegs, [spike]nard, altogether a dram and a
quarter, most of the first and less of each of the others in order. Let
a powder be made thereof, and with it put a pound and half a quarter (by
the heavy weight) of lump sugar, brayed and mingled with the aforesaid
spices; and let wine and sugar be set and melted on a dish on the fire,
and mixed therewith; then put it in the strainer, and strain it until it
runs clear red. Note, that the sugar and the cinnamon ought to
predominate.<end quote>

Orange peel is harder to document until *very* late english renisasance.
Check sources such as Platt or Digbie for adding orange peels. It seems
that medieval people just didn't add fruit to wine. I think this was
because wine was expensive and fruit was cheap. Look for recipes for
hippocras. When you find them you will also find all the sources you
need for adding sugar to wine. (As well as those already cited.)

Almonds did not seem to be normally added to spiced wines, but there is
a mention of them in Curye on Inglysch (see above for full citation.
Page 45, I: Diuersa Cibaria
<begn quote> 5 Kaudel ferre. 
Wyn, amnidoun, reysyns withoute stones to don thrin, sucre vort abaten
the streinthe of the wine.<end quote>

My interpretation:
Take wine, ground almonds, ground seedless raisins and sugar in order to
hide the strength of the wine.

The biggest problem with the recipe to "make it medieval" is that there
is no pepper. Every hippocras recipe I have found includes pepper in
some form (black pepper, grains of paradise, spikenard etc.) I know
pepper in a sweet wine seems a little odd, but I assure you the extra
bite it add to the wine is very good.

Please write to me if you have any questions, I like to talk about
beverages (could you tell? ;)

Crystal of the Westermark
crystal at pdr-is.com

Christi Redeker wrote:
> 
> Forwarded from the arts list (now that I can send email).  Anyone out
> there know if the glogg he mentions is period so I can help him out?
> The ingrediants look like the could be, but we all know how that
snip
> -----Original Message-----
> From:   Ted Hewitt [SMTP:brogoose at pe.net]
> Sent:   Tuesday, January 13, 1998 3:25 AM
> To:     sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
> Subject:        Re: Glogg
snip
> >anybody steer me to the right sources for documentation? It has the
> >following ingredients:
> >red wine, aquavit, sugar, orange peel, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom,
> raisins,
> >and almonds.
> >Thanks,
> >Robert the Bald
> I can't help you... but I have a friend, Scott, who might if I can track
snip
> Edwin, Full-time Idealist, Part-time Realist
> <brogoose at pe.net>
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