SC - Beef on Kimmelweck

[Alderton, Philippa]

- -------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: Medieval distillery question
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1999 10:27:00 -0400
From: Mary_HallSheahan at ademco.com
To: troy at asan.com

Greetings Master Adamantius--

I checked with my friendly family revenuer about the cordials recipe posted
a month or so ago... as summer vacations wind down his answer is attached.
Could you forward my synopsis to Cooks List for me?

As done in period, the recipe requires distillation, which is therefore a
federally regulated activity.  ie Mordonna's right, the revenuers would
frown.  What surprised me is that this "cooking" procedure also sneaks
close to the boundaries of other federally regulated activities--production
of flavoring extracts with highly distilled spirits, and reconstituting
nasty-tasting flavor agents to make tasty bottled beverages.  I recently
learned from our friend Countess Brekke that flavor-extract companies live
with extremely close monitoring by Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco &
Firearms--because alcohol is not taxed when undrinkable, they have to
account for every ounce of spirits that enter their kitchens to emerge as
flavor extract.

Returning to our purposes of redacting cordials recipes while staying
within modern US laws, the originally-posted-recipe is a good use for brown
sugar that has turned rock-solid--heat the brandy to imitate distillation
temperatures, and pour it over the lump.  Because we pay our federal
alcohol tax when we purchase the brandy, and because we don't intend to
sell the final product, IMHO this redaction is legal in the United States.

Hope all is well by you!
Lady Emme Attewater

- ---------------------- Forwarded by Mary Hall Sheahan/Firelite/Pittway on
09/15/99 10:21 AM ---------------------------
//snip//
If I'm not mistaken (and I'm not) sack, malmsey et al are wines.  the
procedure outlined apparently evaporates the alcohol from the wine that is
placed in the interior vessel of a double boiler arrangement and then
condenses the resulting alcohol vapors in the outside vessel of the gizmo.
tho inefficient by today's standards it ought to do the trick.  as the
alcohol is being distilled from wine the result would be a brandy.  (Vodka
originally was distilled from fermented potatos, whiskey from corn, rye
whiskey from rye etc) there are a number of cinimon flavored liquors.  the
Germans make several.  try a bottle of Danziger Goldwasser, several brands
are on the market.  i'm a little rusty in this area, but the steeping of
spirits in spices sounds rather like amelioration, a regulated activity.
(ie:  neutral spirits steeped in juniper berries = gin)

//snip//

===
//snip//
>I'm on a medieval-food mailing list and there's been an ongoing discussion
>about "strong spirits" that would have been used in cordial-type drinks.
>(The basic argument is should we steep the spices & fruits in vodka or
>brandy, which would be closer.)  An antique recipe was posted and got this
>response, maybe you would know if there's something commercially available
>that's similar to what would be produced if someone --in England perhaps
:)
>-- were to try this operation.
>I figured I'd go straight to the revenuers for info on this one!
>Love ya,
>me
//snip//
>  Take a gallon of muskadine, malmsey, or sack & put it in A vessill yt
may
>  be close covered, & put to it into ye vessell a pound of bruised
>cinnamon.
>  let it stand 3 dayes, & every day stir 2 or 3 times.  then put it in a
>  limbeck of glass, stoped fast.  set it in a brass pot full of water,1 &
>put
>  hay in ye bottome & about ye sydes.  then make ye pot seeth, & let it
>  distill in to a glass kept as close as may be.  shift ye glass every
>houre
>  after ye first time, for ye first will be ye strongest, & ye last will
be
>  very weak. >>
>
>Hmmm, this recipe sounds too much like the instructions for setting up a
>'still.  I don't think I will try it while I live in this country unless
>the
>laws change.  My Grandaddy may have been the Barbour County Moonshiner,
but
>my Daddy was a revenuer.
>
>Does anyone know if there is a commercially available product similar to
>the
>product produced by this recipe?    The cinnamon would make it
interesting,
>
>Mordonna
>
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