[Sca-cooks] hydrosols

[Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise]

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


I'm not sure... I am never sure which melons are period and which 
aren't.

Kafir limes are Citrus  hystrix; I'm not sure that the distilled water 
of kafir lime leaves would be significantly different for our purposes 
than the distilled water of other citrus leaves, though obviously a 
connosieur would know the difference at once.
 
> >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".

Well, yes and no. Simple waters are very well documented, and it's
pretty obvious from the texts that distillers were inclined to distill
anything they thought would be interesting. Looking at the texts on
distilled waters I've studied, I'm pretty sure that distilling anything
you can get your hands on is period. 

These are people who distilled tobacco and actually took the water
internally as a medicament, which messes with my fragile sensibilities. 

By the way, here's Tusser's list of herbs to still in Summer:

Herbs to Still in Summer

   1. Blessed thistel.
   2. Betonye.
   3. Dill.
   4. Endive.
   5. Eyebright.
   6. Fennell.
   7. Fumetorie.
   8. Hop.
   9. Mints.
  10. Plantine.
  11. Roses, red and damaske.
  12. Respies.
  13. Sarefrage.
  14. Strawberries.
  15. Sorrell.
  16. Suckerie.
  17. Woodroffe, for sweete waters and cakes.


> 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.

I would create a file on distilled waters and cross-index it.
 
> >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.

Yes, I would.

> 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.

I know there is a gentleman working on this, who has presented his work 
several times at Pennsic. Unfortunately, I don't recall his name or the 
name of his local group.

> 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?

The short answer to your questions is, 'yes'.

Distilled products are more stable than infusions. They also tend to be 
stronger than the original botanical. Yes, most botancials-- and some 
chemical constitutionents (sp?) are more easily extracted in alcohol 
than in water.

-- 
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net 
"Information wants to be a Socialist... not a Communist or a 
Republican." - Karen Schneider