[Sca-cooks] Nocino, period cordial or not?

[Susan Fox-Davis]

Amaretto di Saronno claims origin during the Renaissance:

"Amaretto di Saronno. Legend establishes the origin of the Disaronno 
liquor in Renaissance. At that date Bernardino Luini, a disciple of 
Leonardo da Vinci's, fell so deeply in love that in one of his paintings 
he portrayed the girl of his heart as the Madonna. To express her 
gratitude the girl presented him with a precious distillate of almonds 
and brandy from which today's product is said to descend. By now 
undisputed leader of the market, it has been the token of the Reina 
family's passion for distilling from 1700 to our present days."

Selene Colfox

Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius wrote:

> Also sprach Christiane:
>
>> Hi everyone, I have a question from someone off the SCA-Italiano list 
>> about if there is a period recipe for nocino, the Tuscan cordial made 
>> from green walnuts that are picked on St. John's Day and steeped in 
>> alcohol, sugar, and spices for 43 days.
>>
>> As far as I can tell, I don't even know if nocino was made or 
>> consumed within period. I poked around on the Florilegium a bit, but 
>> didn't turn up anything except the 12 Precious Waters recipes and the 
>> ones submitted by Aoife. Any ideas of where else I can look?
>>
>> Gianotta "will take limoncello over nocino any day of the week" dalla 
>> Fiora
>
>
> Through most of the Middle Ages, while distillation was known, you'll 
> probably find that most cordials (IOW, beverages whose purpose was to 
> stimulate the heart and aid digestion, etc.) were made with wine. A 
> common one was hippocras. Arnold de Villanova has recipes for 
> wine-based cordials, I believe.
>
> One consideration on the more modern cordials is that they seem to 
> contain a lot of sugar, and you're probably not going to see drinks 
> made in that way until, I suspect, the 17th century or later.
>
> Adamantius