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

[Christiane]

Johnnae says:

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.
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It probably varies even from family to family! A gentleman on the SCA-Italiano list made that observation; he lives in Italy now, after claiming dual Italian-American citizenship. He provided some recipes for Italian cordials, with some observations on making bay and artichoke cordials; everything between the quotation marks comes from him:

"Lemoncello:
 
 the upper rind of three lemons (green/yellow color better than all
 yellow). I do mean only the upper rind NO PULP. this should be about
 300 grams in weight add 100 ml of 85-95% pure grain alochol and let
 sit for 2 weeks aggitating daily (Grappa can be used though it takes
 abit longer and you need to know which grape types go well with
 lemon). Then heat 300ml of water and suspend in solution 100 grams
 sugar (I use Fructose most of the time) in it. Before that is heating
 yoou should have removed the fluid from the bottle with the lemon rind
 and have the extract in another bottle ready for the pour and being
 able to seal it quickly. When you have the sugar in full suppesension
 you pour the fluid directly into the bottle containing the extract and
 seal ASAP. Wrap with a towel and agitate. Then place in a spot to
 cool. Allow three to four hours for it to cool and your done.
 
 There are items I am not mentioning; just as they where not told to me
 by those that I learned from. Experiment and learn Just avoid the Pulp
 as it bitters the drink and is really NOT good.
 
 The above done with 200 grams of hazel nuts broken down to a coarse
 granular structure and left for 4-6 weeks makes a wonderful base for
 many diferent hazelnut liquors.
 
 When making the bitter based on bay (Laurel) leaves you want the
 mature older leaves on the tree as it gives a smoother bitter. Also
 adding very small amounts of ginger, cardamon and pepper to this make
 a wonderful drink.
 
 The stems of artichokes mixed with the outer leaves make a wonderfull
 old style Italian country Bitter.
 
 All the above are absed on variations of the lemoncello ratios.
 
 Agrummi
 
 3 skins of clementines
 1 rind of orange
 1-2 rind of lemon
 
 Follow Lemoncello recipe above and modify to taste
 
 For Grand Marquis type drink use above with a 1:1 of the quality of
 brandy you enjoy ( the better the brandy the better the results)."
 
Gianotta who-now-wants-a-glass-of-limoncello-now-dammit dalla Fiora