SC - Drink suggestions? Rose Soda redux

[David Friedman]

I wrote:

>> My main point was not that you had used extract instead of fresh petals but
>> that you had converted an unfermented drink, consisting of a syrup to be
>> diluted in water, into a fermented drink--roughly the equivalent of
>> redacting grape juice as champagne.
>
><sigh> just when I thought it was safe to go back in the water.
>
>If you left the diluted syrup in a open vessel in my kitchen it would
>ferment slightly and have a slight fizz in a few days.

But you don't. You make a syrup, store it as a syrup, and dilute it when
you use it. If you look at that chapter, you will observe that many of the
syrups are diluted in hot water--which would be pointless if you planned to
dilute it and then let it stand for several days. Think sekanjabin--which
is one of the syrups in that chapter.

You especially don't let it sit and ferment if you are a medieval Muslim,
because fermented drinks are forbidden by Muslim law.

>Between the
>brewing and the bread, most sugary beverages will ferment in my kitchen.
>I realize for many medieval households that bought thier bread and ale
>this would not be a problem. However, it was the neglected container of
>dilute syrup that fermented on my counter that gave me the idea for a
>slightly fizzy medivaloid soda. I suppose that a good medieval Muslim
>would have thrown away a slightly fermented beverage, but considering
>the price of sugar, I think many of them would have drunk the concoction
>if it was still sweet.

Sugar is expensive in medieval Europe because it is being imported from the
Islamic world or thereabouts.

>I do not believe this is the equivalent of redacting grape juice as
>champagne, it is redacting grape juice into wine.

It sounded from your description as though it was fermenting in a sealed
container to make it fizzy--which is why I said champagne. But in any case,
redacting grape juice as wine,  for the cuisine of a people whose religion
forbids drinking wine, will do just as well as an analogy.


David/Cariadoc
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/


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