Re Eau Ardent - Re: SC - Re: Duel - Recipe Three

[Phil & Susan Troy]

Decker, Terry D. wrote:
> 
> > Could "ew ardent" be "eau ardent", ie strong spirits?
> >
> > A question:  did period cooks ever set alcohol alight as in flambe?  A
> > castle
> > in flames would be quite a showpiece, indeed.
> >
> > Just some guesses (some pretty far out, I'm sure).
> >
> > Laurie
> >
> IIRC, spirits with enough proof to light begin appearing commonly in the
> mid-15th Century.  However, the first European distillation of brandy occurs
> about 1300 in France and the Arabs had capacity to distill alcohol as early
> as 800.  I don't believe freezing gets the distillates high enough to burn.
> 
> Bear

Perhaps one's definition of "commonly" is the key here. I've seen a couple of
other references to eau ardent, or aqua ardent, in period sources, and if I
remember correctly, there is a recipe for aqua vitae somewhere in Curye On
Inglysch, essentially a distillate of spiced wine. And I could be wrong, but
the chastelets recipe occurs in the late 14th century, but then again even if
brandy distillation occurs in France at a given date, I understood it to have
been practiced earlier in places like Ireland. I wonder if I've been
misinformed, or if you are reading from a French (and therefore
Franco-centric, as I've yet to see a French source that wasn't) source?

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
============================================================================

To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".

============================================================================