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

[Johnna Holloway]

Having browsed the web and the works on Italian Cooking that I have
at hand, I have to wonder if the beverage hasn't changed through time
as to what it contains (as to amount of sugar and spices, variety of 
alcohol, etc.)
and doesn't vary some from place to place and distillery to distillery 
today.
Culinaria Italy indicates that unripe, young, green walnuts that are 
picked on St. John's Day
are cleaned, quartered, and put into bottles with alcohol, sugar, 
cinnamon, and cloves.
This gets placed for 40 days to mellow and ripen in the sun.
This is how they make it today, says the book.
It's noted that this was once a regional drink made and consumed in and 
around
Emilia-Romagna, but that now it's made anyplace they have walnut trees.
I have to wonder if at one time they just soaked the nuts
in alcohol without as much sugar.
Linda and Fred Griffith in their book Nuts describe a Nocino that is 
made today
in Modena. Here the green walnuts are gathered and sliced. They are 
placed in
large glass jars that are maybe 10 gallons in size. "The process gets a 
jump start
with the addition of a little alcohol." They put a plastic lid on the 
jar and store all
the jars in a brightly lit building. Over the next 11 months they are 
strained 3 times.
The liquer is poured off the next May. The walnut pieces that remain are 
squeezed
for any liquid they hold. Then the Nocino is stored for another year 
before bottling. This Nocino
they note is not exported.
Hope this helps,

Johnnae

>Adamantius says:snipped
>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.
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>That was what I was suspecting, although in Italy fine white sugar, as Helewyse says, was considered almost a medicine rather than as a food and distributed by the apothecary. Still, without a reference in period literature or menus or diaries, it's hard to say if nocino was around at all or if it was made the same way that it is now. Sigh.
>Gianotta
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