[Sca-cooks] New here Hello All!!

Stefan li Rous StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
Wed Nov 7 20:45:01 PST 2007


Selene commented:

<<< We want to keep you Recovering from Alcoholism but a lot of the
historical recipes call for alcohol of some kind, so it gets a bit dicey
to try to make substitutions. >>>

Unfortunately Selene is right about the proportion of alcoholic  
drinks in the Middle Ages. This is in part because the alcohol acted  
as a preservative and when mixed with some unsafe water could  
minimize the bad things in it. In addition, some items such as fresh  
fruit juices, while they were drunk, could only be drunk for a short  
time after harvest before they fermented naturally.

If you are looking for non-alcoholic, non-sweet beverages, such as we  
diabetics often do, then the number of medieval drinks gets even more  
pruned down. Here are the files in the Florilegium BEVERAGES section  
that are non or only lightly alcoholic.

beverages-NA-msg  (89K)  6/23/05    Non-alcoholic beverages.
bev-water-msg     (30K)  6/11/06    Water as a beverage in period.
    (Yes, plain water was drunk in period. But not at feasts)
coffee-msg        (92K)  7/ 8/06    Coffee and coffee-type drinks.
    (Post 1600 for Europe)
infusions-msg     (24K)  3/26/02    Period infusions. Herbal "teas".  
Barley tea.
jalabs-msg        (71K)  7/ 3/04    Drinks with a sugar or honey- 
syrup base such
                                        as Sekanjabin (Persian Mint  
Drink).
kvass-msg         (73K)  7/ 4/04    Russian drink made from bread or  
grains.
    (lightly alcoholic)
wassail-msg       (26K)  2/10/07    Spiced cider and ale drinks.  
Traditions.
    (As Selene commented, this is the spiced cider which could be  
made with fresh cider/apple juice)

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 ****





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