[Sca-cooks] Beverages, was Royal authenticity

[jenne at fiedlerfamily.net]

> > Unfortunately, there isn't anything non-alcoholic.  Water isn't safe to
> > drink, unless it's from a stream (non-well water) or processed in some way
> > (boiled).
>
> Huh? Well water is usually safer than stream water.

Period sources considered running water safer than standing water. If the
water table was contaminated (by nearby garderobes), well water would of
course include the contaminants... but without extensive research I can't
tell you if it would be MORE contaminated than running water or not.

>   Milk isn't safe to drink, or seems not to be considered as a
> > drink (except for Norwegian buttermilk?).
>
> It isn't safe? Why not? I've been regularly drinking cow juice for 50 years,
> and I'm not only not dead, I'm in excellent health.

Bear in mind that milk, for the last 50 years, has been extensively
regulated BECAUSE it's so easy for it to pass on contaminants and
illnesses, especially Typhoid and TB.

> > Fruit juices are too expensive to
> > drink, except for apple or grape, and they won't keep unless they're
> > fermented.
>
> How long are you expecting them to keep? Generally, a bag of ice will keep a
> pretty good sized amount of juice cool all day, in a reasonably insulated
> cooler, particularly if yoy cover it with a wet towel and add evaporative
> cooling to the mix. I fill my 5 gallon beverage cooler with (clean) beer
> cans and ice, and it usually stays cool for a couple of days at most events.

So, you could serve fruit juices during the time the fruits were available
fresh and for a few days afterward, you're saying. But that covers at most
half the year, unless you do extensive grape storage (stored apples slowly
lose their moisture so they wouldn't be very good for cider in the long
term.)

Now, there are provisions for juices mentioned in the Domostroi and other
sources-- perhaps fruits preserved in honey stay juicier?

> Well, I suspect it depends on the ambience you're striving for. Now, I'm
> hoping Adamantius comes up with the requested recipe for small beer, because
> I strongly suspect that that was the most likely "non-alcoholic" beverage in
> period (depending, of course, on your when/where).

I'd have to agree that this seems to be the most likely 'soft' beverage--
small beer or small mead and their variants.

-- Pani Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
 "in verbis et in herbis, et in lapidibus sunt virtutes"
(In words, and in plants, and in stones, there is power.)