[Sca-cooks] Making verjuice

[Denise Wolff]

Thank you Robin, very timely too!! I am currently in the process of making 
verjuice from the wild grapes in my yard, as well as from the crabapples in 
the yard too!! I love documentation!!
Andrea MacIntyre



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>From: Robin <rcmann4 at earthlink.net>
>Reply-To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
>To: SCAFoodandFeasts at yahoogroups.com, sca-cooks at ansteorra.org,        
>godecookery at yahoogroups.com
>Subject: [Sca-cooks] Making verjuice
>Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2005 01:43:40 -0400
>
>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
>
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