SC - OT: Eating the Script Girl

[Huette von Ahrens]

Stefan li Rous wrote:

> Cindy Renfrow/Sincgiefu gabe a recipe for buttered beer:
> > I just came across this & I remembered someone here was looking for a
> > Butter Beer recipe.  This is from the Good Huswifes Handmaide for the
> > Kitchen (undated, probably mid 1600s), ed. by Stuart Peachey, Stuart Press,
> > 1992, p. 62.
> >
> > To make Buttered Beere.
> > Take three pintes of Beere, put five yolkes of Egges to it, straine them
> > together, and set it in a pewter pot to the fyre, and put to it halfe a
> > pound of Sugar, one penniworth of Nutmegs beaten, one penniworth of Cloves
> > beaten, and a halfepenniworth of Ginger beaten, and when it is all in, take
> > another pewter pot and brewe them together, and set it to the fire againe,
> > and when it is readie to boyle, take it from the fire, and put a dish of
> > sweet butter into it, and brewe them together out of one pot into an other.

The original request was part of last summer's "Harry Potter" thread while Papa
Gunther was away at Pennsic and we were getting silly.  I don't suppose a modern
children's book writer may reasonably imply that minor children were drinking
anything alchoholic, but this recipe makes a certain kind of sense.

> Anyone have an idea how much a "penniworth" of Nutmeg or Ginger or cloves
> is?

Nope.  Just from the other proportions, I might try 1 teaspoon as a penniworth,
1/2 teaspoon for a ha'penniworth to start.

> Also, this sound awlfully wastefull of pots. Sugar, eggs, beer and spices
> is one pot, then put this into another pot and then boil with sweet butter
> and then put into another pot. Or is this just the way it is written
> and the same physical pot could be used for all steps? And why does it
> specify a "pewter" pot? Why specify what the pot is made of? Are they
> leaching some of the lead out of the pot for flavor? Or just using
> a thick pot, rather than copper, to moderate the heat?

I don't happen to like the taste of pewter in my hot drinks.  Maybe some people
do?  I'd be inclined toward your last speculation, the thick pot.

My version of Harry Potter's butter beer was to flavor carbonated water with
"Almond Roca" almond toffee flavor syrup that they use for coffee.  More on the
modern soda model than anything historical.

Selene