SC - Re: Italian drinks?

[Vincent Cuenca]

>
>Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 07:23:27 +0200
>From: Jessica Tiffin <melisant at iafrica.com>
>Subject: SC - Italian drinks?
>
>greetings, the list.
>
>Help!  I have a late-period Italian feast to cook in June, and the only
>Italian sources I have are Platina and Santich's Original Mediterranean
>Cuisine.  This is not a problem for food, but I can't find anything to
>suggest what would have been drunk with feasts, except for wine; Santich
>mentions hypocras drunk with the last course, but gives no documentation
>for it.  Does anyone have an recipe for an Italian version of hypocras?
>any mention of cordials (eg lemon cordial)?  Any English translations of
>Italian sources on the web?
>
>hopefully,
>JdH

De Nola has recipes for wine and water claries and for hippocras.  He was 
writing for the Catalan court in Naples, and is a few years later than 
Platina. There's an article on water clary in the Flori-thingy; look under 
Beverages for one called "Spiced Wines and Sweet Waters".  This should give 
you some help in redacting.  Here's the raw material from de Nola:

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.

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 
heat.

Spices for Hippocras

Cinnamon five parts, cloves three parts, ginger one part; half the wine 
should be red and the other half white, and for one azumbre six ounces of 
sugar; mix it all in a small glazed pot and bring it to a boil; when it 
reaches the boil, take it off and pass it through the sleeve enough times 
for it to come out clear.

azumbre= 4 pints or approx. 2l.

Hope this helps!

Vicente

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