SC - Clarea redaction - long

[Vincent Cuenca]

Okay, here's the recipe.  I'm working from memory, so the original Spanish 
wording may be a bit off.

Clarea de Agua
A un azumbre de agua, cuatro onzas de miel; echa las mismas especias que la 
otra clarea; hervir el agua con la miel y despues echar las especias aparte 
del fuego.

Water Clarea
To an azumbre of water, four ounces of honey; add the same spices as the 
other clarea; boil the water with the honey and then add the spices off the 
fire.

Simple enough, so far.  An azumbre is equivalent to four pints, so the 
proportion of honey to water is one ounce per pint.  But what's the other 
clarea?

The previous recipe is for a wine clarea:

Especias de Clarea
Canela tres partes, clavos dos partes, gingibre una parte, todo molido y 
pasado por estameña y para un azumbre de vino blanco echa una onza de 
especias con una libra de miel, bien mezclado y pasado por una manga de 
lienzo pesado tantas veces para que el vino salga claro.

Spices for Clarea
Cinnamon three parts, cloves two parts, ginger one part, all ground and 
passed through a sieve and for an azumbre of white wine add an ounce of 
spices with a pound of honey, well mixed and passed through a sleeve of 
heavy linen enough times that the wine comes out clear.

Okay, so we've got a good idea of proportions.  Four pints of water, four 
ounces of honey, and one ounce of mixed spices, heavy on the cinnamon, light 
on the ginger, all finely ground and sifted.  One problem is apparent 
though; if the spices are finely ground, some particles will remain in 
suspension no matter how many times you strain the clarea.  On a whim, I 
checked out the corresponding recipe in the 1520 Catalan edition.

De pimentes de clareya
Gyngebre blanch cinch onçes: canyella . vi onçes: nous de xarch mig quart: 
clauells d<e> girofle e tot aço picaras de manera que solament sia mig 
picat: e apres pren mig q<ua>rto [IX] de vi e met hi vna honça e mija de 
dites pime<n>tes ensemps ab vna liura de mel: ap<re>s passar ho has per la 
manega d<e>l canamas e passau tantes vegades fins que hisca clara.

On Spices for Clarea (quick and dirty translation)
White ginger five ounces; cinnamon four ounces: grains of paradise half a 
quarter: cloves and crush all this in such a way that it is only half 
ground: and then take half a quarter(?) of wine and add to it an ounce and a 
half of the said spices together with a pound of honey: then pass it though 
a sleeve of canvas as many times as needed to make the wine come out clear.

As you can see, this is a different recipe for basically the same thing. The 
proportions of ginger and cinnamon are reversed, and grains of paradise are 
added. A quarter is a quarter pound.  Since spices are weighed on the 
apothecary's scale, a quarter of spices is about three standard ounces.  As 
the spices are crushed, it will be easier to strain them.

In redacting, I decided to combine the two recipes.  Since it was a cold, 
dry winter day, I added more ginger than cinnamon so as to stimulate the 
production of warm, moist humors. (At least that's what I put in the 
documentation; the truth of it was that I was half-asleep and accidentally 
reversed the proportions).  I had made this before and had too heavy a hand 
with the cloves, so I went with the following proportions:

Ginger three parts
Cinnamon two parts
Cloves and grains of paradise one part each

For competition, I doubled the "Clarea de Agua" recipe:

1 gallon water
8 oz honey
2 oz mixed spices.

I boiled the honey and water together, skimmed off the foam, then removed 
the pot from the fire and added the crushed spices.  I let them steep 
overnight, then strained them out through some fine cheesecloth.

The resulting drink was smooth, a bit spicy, and not overwhelming.  You can 
play around with the content and the proportions as you wish.  The important 
thing is to use a light hand with the spices, especially the cloves. 
Otherwise you get something that clubs you over the head, kneels on your 
chest, and steals your wallet.

Happy drinking!

Vicente

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