SC - hypoglycaemia

[phlip@morganco.net]

> I'd guess that beer may not have been distilled, as such.
> Distillation from grain doesn't necessarily imply it, docs
> wise. There were wine and ale based medicinals.
[snippage]
>     Aqua vitae is the usual word of note; much debate has
> happened over the proper core ingredient. Just my opinion,
> but, documentation gives brandy the edge, I'd say. If you're
> trying to impress A&S judges, you'll probably get a lot
> farther with aqua vitae-brandy: 
[snippage]

Sorry, please take a look at Markham and at French's Art of Distillation.
If impressing A&S judges means that you have to go by the current A&S
myths, rather than looking at the sources which say ale (grain based,
sorry I guess beer is hopped, which we don't want), as well as wine, then
well, I guess they can just go hang....

Aqua vitae is distilled liquor. Period. Looking at distillation books of
the period, that's quite clear. They don't seem to be making a distinction
between brandy and ale based aqua vitae.

>     Whiskey/scotch is mentioned a number of times in
> historical sources, notably: "The earliest documented record
> of distilling in Scotland occurs as long ago as 1494, when
> an entry in the Exchequer Rolls listed "Eight bolls of malt
> to Friar John Cor wherewith to make aqua vitae" (water of
> life). This was sufficient to produce almost 1500 bottles.

Aqua vitae, however, would not have been processed the way modern
scotch/whiskey is. Usique (Irish whisky) was popularly supposed to have a
bunch of other stuff in it-- by english writers who told how to make it.
In other words, itself was treated as a cordial, not a base for cordials.

>     Vodka is quite inferable, but very lightly documented.
> Someone mentioned Russian Gov't records a while back. Period
> vodka would almost certainly have been grain based,
> certainly not potatoes, and possibly not from a grain overly
> similar to modern wheat.

*sigh* Actually, for the 16th century Vodka is documented. (_Bread and
Salt_ talks about government controlled vodka shops.) However, it appears
that it was originally made with parsnips, from other secondary sources
I've read.

However, parsnip-based vodka is very hard to find. What you find is
grain-based vodka (which may or may not be period _as vodka_.)
On the other hand, modern vodka is a multiple distillate of a grain-based
ferment, to which other flavorings have NOT been added. Which in my
opinion makes it similar to the higher grades of aqua vitae. Scotch &
Whisky, being flavored, I've shied away from using.

>     Gin is probably right out.

Gin's a cordial in and of itself, being flavored with juniper.

>     The fact that we are macerating in distillate to make
> liqueurs instead of a more common Medieval practice:
> distilling after macerating in wine or something else, is
> another problem entirely.  

Yes, though French's gives a few examples of macerating in distillate. On
the other hand, none of the French's or Markham's recipes were sweetened.

Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise	      jenne at tulgey.browser.net
disclaimer: i speak for no-one and no-one speaks for me.
   "My hands are small I know, but they're not yours, they are my own"