SC - Pumpkin Pie Spice

[LrdRas]

Just for grins, I dug out Fernand Braudel's The Structures of Everyday
Life, Harper and Row, 1981.  It is a lovely volume by a superb French
historian heavily illustrated, noted and indexed.  Here's a paraphrase
of his information on brandy:

Stills were known before the 12th Century, therefore alcohol may have
been distilled before then.

It is possible that alcohol was discovered about 1100 at the Salerno
school of medicine.  (although not mentioned in Braudel, this school
seems to be where external condensation of distillates began.)

Distillation of wine was practiced by apothecaries as medicine.  Brandy
results from the first distillation, and spirit of wine from the second.

First distillation of brandy has been attributed to Raymond Lull (d.
1315), probably incorrectly, or to Arnaud de Villeneuve, an itinerant
doctor who taught at Montpellier and Paris and died in 1313 on a journey
from Sicily to Provence.

Charles the Bad was being treated in a brandy soaked sheet in 1387 and
became flambed from a zealous servant and a candle.

In 1496, Nuremberg forbid the free sale of alcohol on feast days.  A
quote from a Nuremberg doctor about 1493, "In view of the fact that
everyone at present has got into the habit of drinking aqua vitae it is
necessary to remember the quantity that one can permit oneself to drink
and learn to drink it according to one's capacities, if one wishes to
behave like a gentlemen.

1514, Louis XII grants the guild of vinegar-makers the privilege of
distilling brandy.

1537, Francis I divides the privilege between the vinegar-makers and the
victuallers leading to quarrels (apparently the business was very
profitable).

In 1506, Colmar (eastern France, free imperial city since 1226) placed
the distillers and distributers under the city control and tracked the
product in the fiscal and custom records.  It appears to have quickly
become a major industry.

An early distillery may have been operating at Gaillac early in the 16th
Century and exported brandy to Antwerp as early as 1512.

Acquavite appears in the Venetian customs records in 1596.  And in
Barcelona in the 17th Century.

Brandy appears to been a mainstay in northern Europe, Germany, the
Netherlands, and France (north of the Loire) long before reaching the
Mediterranean countries. 

Bear


>I have to disagree with you, Lord Ras. 
>
>According to Gregory Austin's (who I admit is a doubious source, he
>reiles *far* too much on poorly documented teriary sources) survey,
>_Alcohol in Western Society_ in 1400's Germany it was illegal to serve
>brandy to your guests. This was some sort of supmtuary law as well as
>trying to limit public drunkeness. There is also some documentation for
>excessive brandy drinking in Italy. 
>
>There are instructions for distilling in Curye on Inglysch, I think some
>cooks would have made brandy to produce the famous fire breathing
>subitiles.
>
>I'll argue more tomorrow after looking at my sources tonight.
>
>Crystal of the Westermark
>
>LrdRas wrote:
>> 
>> In a message dated 1/19/98 1:04:30 AM Eastern Standard Time,
>>stefan at texas.net
>> writes:
>> << When is the first evidence of brandy being used in food?
>
>snip
>I (Crystal) know of none in the middle ages. Bue I'm sure I just haven't
>found it yet.
>
>> 
>> I do not have the information you request above, however, I think I should
>> point out that throughout the Middle Ages distilling was the prerogative of
>> the alchemists and, secondarily the apothecaries, IIRC.  Distilled products
>> and the liqueurs produced from them were produced almost entirely, if not
>> completely, for medicinal purposes.  They were not, IIRC, used in culinary
>> pursuits or for leisurely drinking.
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