[Sca-cooks] Re: Absinthe and herbed liqueurs and cordials

[Christiane]

-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Stanifer <jugglethis at yahoo.com>
Sent: Nov 18, 2004 1:56 PM
To: Christiane <christianetrue at earthlink.net>, 
	Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Re: Absinthe and herbed liqueurs and cordials


--- Christiane <christianetrue at earthlink.net> wrote:

> So, that brings to mind a question I have; Absinthe is 19th century,


No, Absinthe is much, much older than 19th century.  Apicius has a recipe for it in one of his
volumes (or 'their' volumes).
=============================================

The Pernod family claims it was invented by a Swiss doctor late in the 18th century, and they began making it in 1797. Yes, wormwood was used before then, so I'd love to see the Apicius recipe to see how closely it correlates to the modern recipes. 

One of the pastis sites I poked around in has the "legendary" origin of the drink; a happy monk in the Luberon distilled a marvelous drink, and he used it to cure people during the plague; and then he quite being a monk to open a bar.

The Chartreuse Website says the Carthusian monks originally were gifted the manuscript with the recipe in 1605; makes me wonder how much older it actually is! Especially since they claim they couldn't figure out the recipe until the 18th century ...

Gianotta