SC - Clarea redaction - long
Vincent Cuenca
bootkiller at hotmail.com
Thu Dec 21 16:36:25 PST 2000
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
_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com
More information about the Sca-cooks
mailing list