first sqream ride of the season. meets at 6 at Fuel. (i do not intend to give fuel any money, for those who might wonder.) goes till ten.

wearin’ my jesus shirt.

first sqream ride of the season. meets at 6 at Fuel. (i do not intend to give fuel any money, for those who might wonder.) goes till ten.

wearin’ my jesus shirt.

from a recipe originally ~~mid- to late- 1300s. this is from the Forme of Cury:  i’ve got another from Cury on Englische, but that will have to be another post.

  PUR FAIT YPOCRAS. [...] Treys Unces de canett.{sic} & iii unces de gyngeuer. spykenard de Spayn le pays dun denerer, garyngale. clowes, gylofre. poeurer long, noiez mugadez. maziozame cardemonij de chescun i. quart’ douce grayne & de paradys stour de queynel de chescun dim unce de toutes, soit fait powdour &c. 

oh dog latin! dog Anglo-French! and  - well, no, that’s a pretty fair estimate of the state of transitional Early Modern literacy among the chef set. at least their latin’s better than j.k. rowling’s. although that’s not saying a whole lot.

i transliterate:

  PUR FAIT YPOCRAS. Treys Unces de canett.{sic} & iii unces de gyngeuer.
(Pour fait Hypocras: Trois onces de canell & iii onces de gyngeuer)

- For making Hippocras: three ounces of cinnamon and three ounces of ginger (ground? apparently.)

spykenard de Spayn le pays dun denerer, garyngale. clowes, gylofre. poeurer long, noiez mugadez. maziozame cardemonij de chescun i. quart’ douce
(spykenard de Spayn le pais d’un denier, galyngale, clowes-gylofre, poevrer long, noiey mugadey, mariorame, cardemonii, de chescun in quart’ d’once)

- spikenard, a piece of one penny’s worth (possibly “the size of a penny” – the debate rages on, if something so desultory may be said to rage); galingal, whole cloves, long pepper, nutmeg, marjoram, cardamom, of each (of the preceding) a quarter-ounce.

grayne & de paradys stour de queynel de chescun dim unce
(grayne de paradys, stour de queynel, de chescun dimi d once)

- grains of paradise, ground cassia berries, of each (of the two) an ounce

de toutes, soit fait powdour &c.
(de toutes, soit fait powdour &c {& serue it forth})

- of all, take and make powder, and serve it thus, or serve it forth, or “and use it.” (with what kind of wine? how much? where’s the honey? or even “sugre blanche” ? )

the traditional Pimp Cup of the Kings of England, and occasionally France and Spain, depending on who was pimping the hardest at any given time

it’s pretty much the most hopeless recipe, as far as piments-clarees-and-such go. all medieval recipes are messily written, but this one is messier than most – and some modern translators used to substitute ingredients they’re not familiar with, since they’re not typical modern spices, without telling the reader.

also, samuel pegge, who in 1780 compiled The Forme of Cury from manuscript rolls of “cookery’ compiled by and for the master-cooks of Richard II (around 1390),  more readily understood the printers’ contemporary conventions for dealing with archaic characters, such as “Ȝ ȝ,” yogh, which commonly was then printed as “z,” when it should be a sort of Y or G, or even Gh. other characters were set as Y or D  or P when they ought to be “th,” and let’s not even get into how many phonetic representatives the letter wynn could be translated as. these days, even professional translators don’t necessarily understand these conventions, leave behind chefs or SCA reconstructionists.

I personally think the mastercooks were perfectly able to make a distinction between true cinnamon, canel, and cassia cinnamon, a close botanical cousin with a brighter but much soapier and coarser flavor, and which usually came in berry form, or ground berries made into a sort of floury powder. i’ll admit this is educated speculation: but the primarily flavors in claree, piment, hippocras, and other things like the ancestors of bragot (originally made with ale, not mead) and metheglin, were first cinnamon and clove flavors, next ginger and galangal flavors – something that’s easily visible in the proportions of spices even for a mongolian clusterbeast like the recipe above. besides, i’m not the only person who thinks this.

i use fresh ginger because it’s easy to get these days, but i use much less because of its much greater strength and complexity, as compared to the ground ginger the mastercooks would have been obliged to use.

ginger on the left, galangal on the right.

a word on galangal;
it’s a root closely related to ginger, but its flavor is cedary and bright in a citrusy way, and not peppery like ginger – although it is certainly complementary: southeast asian folks have been using it in their traditional cuisines and home food – it’s especially good for fish – for hundreds of years at the very least.
it’s a competent carminative and digestive stimulant, which is why it’s frequently included in ‘medicinal’ digestive cordials for upper-class folks – if you had to go to a twelve-course feast stuffed with rich processed food every day for three straight weeks, as most upperclass medieval folks did several times a year, you’d want a carminative too.
it’s usually found in ground form these days, unless you have access to a good asian grocery: here in denver you can find it in both forms at Pacific Mercantile in Sakura Square. i use the ground form – like all dried and processed herbs, it loses strength in drying, but its strength is predictable and reliably measurable, and galangal in particular’s kind of hard to prepare at home: it’s an extremely tough root and needs a heavy-duty grinder to shred enough to use. however, fresh herbs are always better; do feel free to use them if you’re feeling hardcore.
>> it’s also interesting to sub out or half-and-half sub fresh lemon-scented geranium leaves, chopped, with a wee bit of fresh rosemary. it’s similar, with easier ingredients, and all the benefits of fresh herbs. did you know scented geraniums were edible? now you do. you can use them in teas, tisanes, even baking. grow some!

on long pepper: i am lazy, so here’s a wiki extract:

if i found this lying on the ground in the wild, i'm pretty sure i wouldn't taste it

Long pepper (Piper longum), (Pippali), sometimes called Indian long pepper, is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. Long pepper has a similar, but hotter, taste to its close relative Piper nigrum - from which black, green and white pepper are obtained. The word pepper itself is derived from the Tamil/Malayalam word for long pepper, pippali.

The fruit of the pepper consists of many minuscule fruits — each about the size of a poppy seed — embedded in the surface of a flower spike that closely resembles a hazel tree catkin. The fruits contain the alkaloid piperine, which contributes to their pungency. Another species of long pepper, Piper retrofractum, is native to Java, Indonesia.

yeah, so, this is expensive, and black pepper isn’t really to the modern taste in cocktails unless it’s in a bloody mary or similar. however, cayenne and cinnamon go well together, so a small amount of cayenne may be subbed in.

not shown: every cat in a five-mile radius, losing his/her shit in front of god and everybody

on spikenard: it’s one that everyone’s heard of and few people have actually tasted – an incredibly ancient middle eastern and mediterranean herb, closely related to valerian, precious for fragrance and medicinal use for thousands of years in written history and in all probability thousands of years beyond count before the invention of writing of any sort. base-note perfume oil is distilled from its root; many people think it was a key ingredient in the funky incense cones the Egyptians used to wear on their heads at banquets, it’s quoted in the Song of Solomon,  and was  a large part of what made Sheba the richest trading empire of its time.
it was used to anoint kings in the levantine tradition of kingship,  which was so ancient it might more properly be called prehistoric. this was most notably done to a vagrant jewish preacher with interestingly socialistic ideas, by the name of jeshua bin yosef,  one day just before passover, in the course of an otherwise unmemorable year during the reign of Tiberius: a lady  - frequently suspected to have been an  ….associate … of Mary the Hairdresser, native of Magdala and professed witch –  ran into the room, cracked a jar of expensive ointment, threw some at his head, and ran back out before she could be identified. this tongue-in-cheek statement-slash-ironic joke-slash-performance art has been taken out of context in all kinds of ways over the intervening years, but the sheer pitch to which it enraged this particular preacher’s little band of outcast followers has made it at the very least an anecdote worth pondering.

it’s a diuretic, a marginal emmenagogue and diaphoretic, and is often used as a sedative in aromatherapy. its flavor is musky and earthy and, like its cousin valerian, cats FREAK OUT over it and will come running from anywhere and everywhere to go bugfuck over it and each other, and possibly the cook.
the oil is what’s typically used: i’ve no idea whether Richard’s cooks would have used the usual thick, gummy distillate Nard with its intense flavor, or the dried and powdered root. you can get both online or in specialty herb shops. i think Herbs and Arts carries it, and iirc the Alchemy place by Queen Soopers’ carries it, and Apothecary Tinctura probably carries it. i personally don’t like it, so i don’t use it. if you want to be super historical, go ahead, but don’t quote me as a fan.

try to find organically grown guineapeppers. the last thing we need is more Frankengrown GMO Monsanto-nodules.

on grains of paris/grains of paradise: a fashionable prestige spice at the time, but in use at least as far back as the time of Pliny. Pliny had some moderately funky ideas about botany, but at least identified this one correctly.
they’re also used in stateside voodoo and hoodoo, particularly as pertains to legal matters; and in War Water, which you shouldn’t drink.
Grains are african-native pods similar to cardamom; the part used is the wee nodules inside the pod, dried. they’re easily found today, sometimes called “guinea pepper” on the shelf.
these used also to be called “meleguetas;” so don’t confuse with malagueta chilis, which are actual chili peppers popular in south america.

i use:

 - cheep dry red wine, usually a jeroboam or 4 bottles
 - juice of two medium-sized oranges, or one orange and one large lemon
 -  three cinnamon sticks.
 - 1/3- to 1/2-cup cassia cinnamon (ground – this is the cheap stuff that’s usually sold as ground cinnamon) AND
 - around a tblsp of ground clove. i put all ground ingredients except sugar together into two coffee filters, leaving room for expansion, and seal them shut with a staple or a couple of quick stitches.
 - galangal: one tblspn
 - ginger: two tablespoons of grated ginger. 
 - long pepper: two dashes of cayenne, no more.
 - nutmeg, cardamom and marjoram: a teaspoon each.
 -  1 cup of dark brown sugar or to taste.

a single-filter Hippocrates' Sleeve. nobody knows why he was fashion-forward in this particularly striking way, although it is theorized that he was way into jelly, or way into multitasking, or both.

i don’t use spikenard and i usually don’t use guineapepper, either, unless i happen to have it on hand.

if you have time, strain through a jellybag – many think the name “hippocras” actually derives from the straining device used for it, a conical, jellybag-like affair called a “Hippocrates’ Sleeve” – and then rewarm it if needed.

i throw everything together with 1/2 the wine, and warm until it steams copiously and is fragrant: a low simmer is all right, but don’t simmer it for long. when tasted, it ought to taste far too sweet. then add the rest of the wine and continue to warm at the same temperature until it steams again. strain and … serve forth.

this method takes about 40 minutes if you’re in a hurry and cooks out a good deal of the alcohol, but by no means all of it. it serves about as many people as four bottles of wine can be expected to serve: any leftover can be bottled and kept refrigerated for later rewarming.

interesting additions to hippocras and various piments through the mid- and later-medieval forms of evolving gastronomy may be found here:

Historic Food: Spices for Hippocras

either this girl was nuts to begin with, or else she’s developed a deathwish concomitant to her little affaire.

a tip of my Phrenology Helmet to Eric A over at ModernBuddy, who always finds the bestest stories.

looking at some of this graffiti, it’s hard to tell which of the choices is correct.

jasper goodall, obviously.

this is only the beginning.

i want everyone reading this to know that i actually heard, with my own ears, four men sitting around in a room discussing relationships in a sane, rational, mature, and downright fuggin philosophical manner for half a damn hour, this evening.

we played apples to apples, which is the best non-braining post-food and drink game in the history of ever, and i won (i always win, because i am tremendously awesome at similes, i’m sorry), but everyone was having such a good time accusing each other of unspeakable perversity that i withdrew instead so they could keep playing.

also, best day of giving thanks ever. i love all of you, and i hope you are thankful for your awesome lives, and your awesome friends and families, and the delicious plenty of food you eat, and the roof over your head, and the fact that you live in relative harmony, with nobody throwing bombs at your house or hauling your SO off to Sekret Police Questioning never to return, or at least not yet. ^_^ i sure am.