[Sca-cooks] tisane

[Johnna Holloway]

Here are some others. This search is complicated by the variety of
spellings. I didn't search under each variant.
If each of these quotations and or recipes were searched in the original
texts, I suspect that at least some are for something other than barley
water or are barley waters mixed with other herbs.

The MED (Middle English Dictionary)
*c1440 /Thrn.Med.Bk./(Thrn)*

51/33:  Þe best drynke ware calde water mengede with vynagre or tysayn,
for tysayn profettes mekill to men þat are colorik.

*?a1450 /Macer/ (Stockh Med.10.91)*
84:  Medle þe iuus of leek [with] ptisane [vr. petisane].

*?a1450 /Macer/ (Stockh Med.10.91)*
167:  Take þis herbe in þe iuus of tysane [vrr. ptisan, tipsan].

*c1475 */Mondeville/ (Wel 564)*
153a/a:  Al maner potage as pesen, almaunde mylk, gruel ptisanne..&
oþere siche.

from EEBO-TCP where one can turn up dozens and dozens of matches:

John Partridge's The Widowes Treasure. 1588 has this recipe:

A woorthy purgation to auoide Choller.

TAKE halfe an vnce of Cassia newly drawne, a dragme of good Rubarbe,
infused a night with water of Endife, with a little Spicknarde, and an
vnce of Sirrop of Violets: mixe all the sayde thinges with thrée ounces
of Ptisan or Whay, and drinke it warme.

Poking about in EEBO-TCP

Maison rustique, or The countrey farme translated and enlarged by
Gervase Markham. 1616 pages 209-210

Maries Thistle (otherwise called Spina alba, or white and siluer
Thistle, or ?  Artichoke, or Asse-Thistle, because that Asses delight
much to eat it) doth ? fat and well tilled ground, and other ordering,
like to that of Beets: and it ? that it letteth not to grow in vntilled
and vnhusbanded grounds. The seed and  haue (as it were) the like power
to take away obstructions, to prouoke vrine, and it breake the stone,
that Star-thistle hath. The Italians vse the roots thereof in Salads,
after the manner of Artichokes; and good wines, to gather the milke of
it, for to eat. Some make a Ptisane with the root of this Thistle made
in powder, the seed of Fennell, and a little long Pepper, to giue to
Nurses to vse which haue small store of milke. The distilled water of
the leaues is good against paine in the sides, being drunke with halfe a
dramme of the seed of the same hearbe.


John Gerald mentions of fennel "The greene leaues of Fenneil eaten, or
the seed drunken made into a Ptisan, do fill womens brests with milke."
This is from the 1633 edition which is online in the EEBO-TCP.

Searching under Tisan and not Ptisan--- one can find remedies like this one:
An excellent Laxative Tisanne to take, when one hath a need.

TAke a good handful of Pimpernel; of Sena, of green Annise, of Licorice,
of Salt Prunelle, of each half an ounce, of Rhubarb one ounce, two
penniworth of stick Cinnamon, the juyce of two Limons. Take of this
Tisanne a good Glass full in the morning, another a little before
dinner; and (if it needed) a third in the afternoon.

This is in the 1675 text of Choice and experimented receipts in physick
and chirurgery as also cordial and distilled waters and spirits,
perfumes, and other curiosities. Digby, Kenelm, Sir, 1603-1665

Johnnae

emilio szabo wrote:
> Johnnae,
>
> thank you! I am familiar with the OED quotations.snipped