[Sca-cooks] Citron leaves

[Stefan li Rous]

Deirdre O'Bardon asked:
<<< There are several medieval Middle Eastern and Andalusian syrup  
recipes I would love to make that require citron leaves.  If you find  
a way to obtain them, or if the lime leaves work, please let me know.  
 >>>

First, Welcome to SCA-Cooks list!

Are these syrup recipes for beverages or something else?  I'd love to  
see these. Can you post them?

I have several beverage syrup recipes which Master Cariadoc posted a  
number of years ago in the Florilegium jalabs-msg file. Like the  
other melted cheese recipes which I encourage folks to try in  
addition to Cheese Goo (Digby's Savory Tosted Cheese), I encourage  
folks to try some of these other beverage recipes as alternatives to  
the Sekanjabin recipe that Master Cariadoc also popularized. But a  
lot of these either have ingredients that I don't know what they are  
or have no idea, like these Citron leaves, where to get. :-(

Okay, here is one using Citron leaves which doesn't sound too  
difficult once you have the Citron leaves:
======
Syrup of Citron Leaves: Way of Making It

Take fifty leaves and remove the dust on them with a cloth, then  
cover them
all with water in a pot and cook it until the strength comes out.  
Then take
the clean part of it and add a ratl of sugar. The bag: half an ûqiya  
each
of aloe stems, Chinese cinnamon, and cloves. Cook all this until it  
becomes
good to drink. Drink one ûqiya with three of water. Its benefits: it  
cheers
the heart with much gaiety, fortifies the internal organs, and  
softens the
bowels gently; it is extraordinary.
======

And here is one with a number of unusual ingredients:
=====
A Syrup of Honey

Take a quarter ûqiya each of cinnamon, flower of cloves and ginger,  
mastic,
nutmeg, Chinese cinnamon, Sindi laurel, Indian lavender, Roman  
spikenard,
elder twigs, elder seeds, oil of nutmeg, bitter and sweet nuts, large  
and
small cardamom, wild spikenard, galingale, aloe stems, saffron, and  
sedge.
Pound all this coarsely, tie it in a cloth, and put it in the kettle  
with
fifteen ratls of water and five of honey, cleaned of its foam. Cook all
this until it is at the point of drinking. Drink an ûqiya and a half,  
and
up to two, with hot water. Its benefit is for weak livers; it  
fortifies the
stomach and benefits dropsy among other ailments; it dissolves phlegm  
from
all parts of the body and heats it a great deal, gives gaiety,  
lightens the
body, and it was used by the ancients like wine for weariness.
=======

Is "flower of cloves" the blossom of the clove plant? or cloves  
pounded into a powder?

Maybe it is just time and learning, but some of these recipe  
ingredients don't seem quite as unusual as they did several years ago  
when I first tried to figure out how I might make them. :-)

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 ****