[Sca-cooks] hydrosols

[Stefan li Rous]

Jadwiga answered me with:
> >> Kefir Lime Leaves and Mint
> >> Orange flower and Rosemary
> >> Orange flower and Honey
> >> Pineapple and Mint (especially when dropped into a Rum and Coke!!!)
> >> Muskmelon and Cucumber
> >> Thyme and Scallion
> > I think only a few of these have any chance of being period.
>
> Pineapple and mint looks like the only one that probably couldn't have
> been made in period,

Okay. What about the *kefir* Lime Leaves and the Muskmelon, though?

> and as distillers tended to distill anything they
> got their hands on, someone probably made all of them at one time or
> another.

Yes, although this does get into whether having someone do something 
once makes it "period".

> So what
> > period hydrosols were there? Rosewater and orange flower water?
> > Anything else? Perhaps mints?
>
> Cinnamon. Nutmeg. Lavender. Rosemary Flower.
>
> The waters listed in Chapter III of Markham's English Housewife 
> include:
> Radish, sage, angelica, celadine, vine, eye-bright, rosemary, treacle
> (the medicine, not the sweetener, I think), cloves, saxifrage,
> Cosmetic waters he lists include bean flowers, strawberries, vine
> leaves, lily flower, 'dragons', etc.

I was thinking of this originally as distillates/waters used in period 
cooking, but this does bring up the fact that they also used these in 
personal care items. And I guess it also covers distilled beverages as 
well. Unfortunately, those are in three separate sections in the 
Florilegium. If you were looking for info on such things would you look 
under "hydrosols" or something else? Maybe I should use a different 
file name in such a file in the Florilegium.

> Most of Markham's compound waters call for alcohol but some of them do 
> not.

Would you group info on water and alcohol distillates together in the 
same file? Apparently Markham did.

I think study in this area might let SCA folks look into period 
distillation without crossing into activities which are illegal, at 
least in the US. This whole subject on orange flower waters and 
distilled essences is certainly new to me, so perhaps to others and 
worth getting into the Florilegium.

What are the resulting differences between creating this essence by 
infusion vs. distillation? Are the distilled essences going to be 
stronger? Or is there more to it than this? Are there particular 
essenses which extract better with alcohol than water?

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****