[Sca-cooks] barley tea

[Mark.S Harris]

Jadwiga Zajaczkowa replied to me with:
> > Correct. I wasn't claiming it was. It's another of those items that
> > is sometimes difficult to omit without causing an uproar. As to
> > infusions as drinks, what about barley tea?
>
> Barley tea is a drink for invalids, as far as I've been able to find it.

This was not quite what I remembered, so I went looking through the
Florilegium and found several period recipes, mainly in the
infusions-msg file. I also saw your name, Jadwiga, several places in
those discussions, so I doubt you are unfamiliar with barley tea.

Anyway, my interpretation is that while it was sometimes
recommended to treat specific conditions, it was also recommended
for folks that were well or at least those who had specific humours.

"Tisane which is made of barley, if anyone knows how to make it, is good
for well people and for those with a fever
."

"...barley kashk, prepared every day.... Its description in accordance
with the needs of our master is as follows:"

"It is suitable for warm
temperaments, for young people, in Summer and in Southerly regions."

So I think this could be served as a beverage at an SCA event. Whether
folks would drink it, or even try it, is another question.

I've gone ahead and pasted the message I took these comments from,
below. My appologies if this is too long but I thought some who
hadn't seen these before might be interested.

Some of these seem to be a bit more complicated than the "barley tea"
that I bought in the store a while back.  The one by Moses Maimonides
might be an interesting redaction exercise, although like some of the
period jalab recipes, even after redacting it I'm not sure where I
would find some of the ingredients.

Stefan li Rous
stefan at texas.net

> Date: Sun, 01 Feb 1998 17:00:15 -0800
> From: "Crystal A. Isaac" <crystal at pdr-is.com>
> Subject: Re: SC - Herbal infusions
>
> LrdRas at aol.com wrote:
> > You may be right here but the drinking of such infusions were almost if not
> > entirely for medicinal purposes.  It does not surprise me that there is no
> > mention of this in period cookery sourses. To research this information, IMHO,
> > you would have to turn to herbals and medicinal manuals.
> >
> > Ras
>
> The following are some medieval sources for tisane. I thought tisane
> meant "barley water" so perhaps if I go look again I'll find more
> tisanes that are "herb water." Please remember nearly all of these are
> translations perhaps the word tisance was used for convenience.
>
> What does "stampe" mean in 14th century english/context of making violet
> water?
>
> Thanks,
> Crystal of the Westermark
>
> Anthimus. De Observatio Ciborum. circa 526CE. Translated by Weber,
> Shirley Howard. _Anthimus, De Observatio Ciborum: Text, Commentary and
> Glossary with a Study of the Latinity. Dissertation
_. Published by E.J.
> Brill Ltd., Leiden 1924.
>
> LXIIII Of Tisane
> Tisane which is made of barley, if anyone knows how to make it, is good
> for well people and for those with a fever
. Diluted with warm wine, a
> teaspoon of it well mixed should be sipped slowly on a empty stomach
.
> We usually give this to those with a fever, not thick, but diluted with
> clear warm water. It is agreeable also during periods of fasting, in
> Lent, to take this with hot water by all means
.
>
> Maimonides, Moses (1135-1204 CE). _Maqalah Fi Bayan Ba'D Al-A'Rad
> Wa-A;-Jawab 'Anha Ma'Amar Ha-Hakra'Ah_. edited and translated by
> Leibowitz, JO and Marcus, S. _Moses Maimonides on the Causes and
> Symptoms (Maqalah Fi Bayan Ba'D Al-A'Rad Wa-A;-Jawab 'Anha Ma'Amar
> Ha-Hakra'Ah [and] De Causis Accidentium)_ Published by University of
> California Press, Berkeley, CA. 1974. ISBN 0-520-02224-6 LCCCN 71-187873
>
> page 147
> ...barley kashk, prepared every day.... Its description in accordance
> with the needs of our master is as follows: Take polished barley, six
> months after it is harvested, forty drams; chopped seeds of fumitory,
> chopped seeds of Iraqi poppy, two drams; chopped moistened white
> sandalwood, one dram; nard, a fourth of a dram; dill flowers, half a
> dram; olive oil from the Magrib or Syria, yellow of color and free from
> bitter taste, three drams. The whole of these should be put together in
> an earthen pot. Pour into this pot one thousand drams of water, and heat
> it over a charcoal fire until half the water evaporates. Then pour into
> it six drams of wine vinegar. Its cooking is completed when less than a
> fourth of it remains, and its color appears red. Then filter it, and add
> to the filtrate half a dram of salt....
>
> Henslow, G. Rev. Professor. editor. _Medical Works of the Fourteenth
> Century Together with a List of Plants Recorded in Contemporary Writing
> with the Identifications_. Published by Burt Franklin, New York, NY,
> 1972. ISBN 0-8337-1666-2.
>
> Page 28 MS. [A]
> If a man-ys bon ys broke. - Take violet and stampe hit with water and
> drynke hit and his schal caste out the brokyn bon.
>
> Page 46 MS. [A]
> For the quinsie. - Take colymbyn and fetherouyghe and the leuys of
> confery and stampe hem to-gedre and drynke the ius with stale ale.
>
> Ratti, Oscar. and Westbrook, Adele. Translators and adaptors. _The
> Medieval Health Handbook_. Orginal Italian edition, _Tacinum Sanitatis_.
> Lusia Arano, editor. Publsihed by George Braziller, Inc. New York. 1976
> ISBN 0-8076-0808-4
>
> >From the Tacuinum of Liege:
>
> 106. Barley Water (Aqua Ordey)
> Nature: Cold and dry in the second degree. Optimum: That which has been
> thoroughly boiled and is mild. Usefulness: For the inflamed stomach.
> Dangers: It is harmful for cold intestines. Neutralization of the
> dangers: With sugar. Effects: Temperate blood. It is suitable for warm
> temperaments, for young people, in Summer and in Southerly regions.
> (Vienna, f. 45)
>
> _Le Menagier de Paris_. (The Goodman of Paris, c. 1395) Translated by
> Janet Hinson. Reprinted in _A Collection of Medieval and Renaissance
> Cookbooks: First Compiled by Duke Cariadoc of the Bow and The Duchess
> Diana Alena_. Fifth Edition (1992) Volume Two, published privately. Page
> M38-39 Beverages for Invalids
>
> Sweet Tisane
> Take water and boil it, then add for each sixth of a gallon of water one
> good bowl of barley, and it does not (or it does not matter? - Trans) if
> it (p. 238) still has its hulls, and get two parisis' worth of licorice,
> item, or figs, and boil it all until the barley bubbles; then let it be
> strained in two or three cloths, and put in each goblet a large amount
> of rock-sugar. This barley is good to feed to poultry to fatten them.
> Note that good licorice is the youngest, and when cut is a lively
> greenish colour, and if it is old it is more insipid and dead, and dry.
>
> Eberhards. _Das Kochbuch Meister Eberhards_ circa 1500 CE. Translated by
> Alia Atlas. Published on-line akatlas at csbu.edu
>
> #27 Barley swells and cools and does not feed well and hurts all those
> who have the affliction, and who become cold nature or who have colic in
> the body. But for hot people and those who would be smaller, it is good.
> And one eats or drinks it with fennel seeds, so it is good for many
> afflictions in the breast, and Avincenna says that barley water harms
> the stomach which is cold. It is also very good for feverish people.