[Sca-cooks] Making verjuice

[Robin]

My apologies for the cross-posting, but this is a topic that has been 
discussed on several lists, and I thought it might be of interest. I 
have translated a short chapter from a 1551 Spanish agricultural manual.

Chapter XXIX On Preserving the Juice of Unripe Grapes

The sourness of verjuice is more gracious for eating than that of 
vinegar, and even healthier; and in the lands where there are no orange 
trees and they cannot easily be had, they keep it all year long. They 
take the unripe grapes [agrazes] when they are quite plump and sour 
before they finish ripening. And they pound them in a mortar of stone, 
and while pounding they cast in a little salt and thus set it in the sun 
for two or three days; and they put the juice in some glazed or coated 
vessel and they keep it well covered. Others do not cast in salt, but 
salt helps greatly to preserve it, especially if it is from those grapes 
[uvas] whose wine is short-lasting, some cast it in a glass or glazed 
vessel and on top of it they cast a little oil, so that, as I said about 
wine,
it is better preserved.

Gabriel Alonso de Herrera, “Libro de agricultura que es de la labraça y 
criança y de muchas otras particularidades del campo”, Toledo, Spain, 1551

Notes:

The oranges mentioned in this passage are bitter oranges. Orange juice 
is a common sour ingredient in period Spanish recipes, along with 
verjuice, vinegar, pomegranate juice, and lemon juice..

"Uva" is the Spanish word for grape. "Agraz" is the word for an unripe 
grape. "Zumo de agraz" is the juice of unripe grapes, but "agraz" is 
often used in recipes to mean verjuice.

The word I have translated as "coated" is "pegada". "Pegar" is one of 
those verbs that have at least a dozen meanings, but the essential 
meaning is to stick things together, to adhere, to attach. In an earlier 
chapter on making and storing wine, the author describes coating wooden 
wine casks with hot pitch. (The other form of wine vessel -- also used 
for storing verjuice -- is glazed earthenware.)

A facsimile of this book (in Spanish) can be found at:
http://alfama.sim.ucm.es/dioscorides/consulta_libro_b.asp?ref=x533701960
The chapter in question begins at the bottom right of page image #101.

-- 
Brighid ni Chiarain
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom
Robin Carroll-Mann *** rcmann4 at earthlink.net