Some of the more elaborate points are posted separately. The book has many more recipes and tips, if interested let me know I can forward the index (the book itself is only available in individual tiff files).
5 How to defend fresh water a long time from putrefaction.
This is performed by the addition of some small proportion of the oyle of Sulphur with it, incorporation them both togither, whereof I have long since made a sufficient triall. Some commende the oile of Vitriol to the same end: and seeing my penne hath so unaduisedtly slipt into an Element of so great necessitie, I will make the Sea-men a little beholding unto me at their first watering, which being spent, I must leave them to their brackish waters againe, unlesse by the helpe of some distillatorie vessell (wherin as also in divers others of the same kind and qualitie, I have found maister Sergeant Gowthowfe, the most exquisite and painfull practizer and performer of our times) they can make separation of the freshe part thereof on Ship-boord. [...]
9 How to brew good and wholsom Beere without anie Hoppes at all.
Since my profession is this booke is in some sort to Sanotomize both Art and nature, withuot any regard of rpivate mens profits, whom it may either escentially, or accidentially touch: I am bolde therefore withouth caving any leave to do good, to renue or rather to confirm & ratifie and ancient opinion & practice, which long since in the great dearth and scarcity of hops many Brewers of this land, have bin forced to put in use for y better supportation of their weark & declining estates. But because they failed in proportion (without the which there can be nothing co'plete or absolute) they suffered a good conceit to die in the birth. And no marvel then if wormwood not withsta'nding it be a simple so highly co'mended of all the ancie't & new Herbarists for his great & singluar effects in physick, be in a maner utterly abandoned of all the brewers of our time (except a few y' can make a difference between 5.s. and 5.li. charge when hops are sold for 50.s. the hundred, seeing as yet not any one of them hath so darkly wrought upon his simple as cover & hide the taste therof, from y' wel mouthed Ale-conners of our co'mon wealth, Which weaknes of theirs because it consisteth wholly in the want of a due proportion between the mault & other beercorn in respect of wormwood, I have thought good to set down a sufficient direction, for such as are wise and willing to doe good both to themselves and to their Countrie, whereby they may easily even in one dayes practize attaine to the full perfection thereof supposing [... 3 columns meer...]
25 A speedie or present drinke which travailers may make for themselves (ex tempore) when they are distressed for want of good Beer or Ale at their Inne.
Take a quart of good water put thereto five or six spoonfuls of good Aqua co'posita, which is strong of the Annis seedes, & one ounce of Sugar with a branch of Rosemarie, brew them a pretie while out of one pot into another, and then is your drinke prepared. Or if you leave out Sugar it will be pleasing inough. I have bene crediblie informed, that diverse gentlemen of good credit when they travell abrode, and cannot like the taste or relith of their drinke, that they use no other then the aforesaide composition, and finde the same both to refresh and coole them verie well, neither are they troubled with the rawnes of colde water, by reason that it hath received some correction from the Aqua Composita, and that the Annis Seedes doe give a delicate taste unto it. It were not amisse for all Sea-men to carrie some store of Aqua Vitae with them, that when their Wine, Sider, Perrie, and Beere are spent, they may transmute their water into the said drinke.
62 To helpe beere that beginneth to soure ir is dead.
Some put a handfull or two of ground malt into a barrell of beere, and stir the same and the beere wel together and so make it worke afresh and become good again. Some do burie sower beere 24. houres in the earth, and thereby recover it. Others adde new strong beere to the old, and so the dead beere is forced sometimes to work againe to a new head. Some fetch it againe with chalke or lime, and some with oyster-shels, and some throw a handfull of salt into a barrell of dead beere. A Ladie in this lande hath alwaies used to put in a handful of ote-meale into every barrell of beere, when it was first laide into her seller, whereby hir drink did alwaies carrie with it a quicke and lively taste. It is also very good to tilt your beere when the vessel is little more then halfe drawn off, for so you shall draw your beere good even to the latter end. [p.59]
65 To make ale or beere to become stale in a short time.
Bottle ale, or bottle beere, being buried somewhat deepe in the ground, in a coole or shadie place, becommeth stale enough to be drunk in 48. hours space, as I have been assured by an honest and sober Courtier. [p.60]
69 How to prevent drunkennesse.
Drinke first a good large draught of Sallet Oyle, for that will floate upon the Wine which you shall drinke, and suppresse the spirites from ascending into the braine. Also what quantitie soever of newe milke you drinke first, you may well drinke thrise as much wine after, without daunger of being drunke. But how sicke you shall bee with this prevention, I will not heere determine, neither would I have set downe this experiment, but only for the helpe of such modest drinkers as sometimes in companie are drawne, or rather forced to pledge in full bottles such quaffing co'panions as they would be loth to offend, and wil require reason at their hands as they terme it. [p.62]
77. How to keepe Claret wine, or any other wine good, many yeares together.
At every vintage you must drawe off almost a fourth part out of the hogshead, and the rowle it upon his Lee, and after fyll it up with the best newe wine of the same kind, that you can get, Your caske must be bound with iron bandes or hoopes, and alwaies kept full and tight. I have heard that an Essex knight useth this practise, and hath Wine of nine or ten leaves (as they terme it) which is so many yeares olde.
97 How to put severall liquors or Wines in one Glasse, without mixing.
Take a Beere glasse of six of eight inches in height, and being of one equall bignesse, from the bottom to the toppe, then powre therein some faire water an inch or two in height, upon the which lay a round trencher that is almost equall in compasse with the Glasse. Then out of a long spowted Glasse or pot, poure gently some milke uppon the Trencher, and after that some Rochell or Connyacke white wine, and then some Gascoigne Claret wine, and after Sacke, and so you shall have each liqour or wine to flote upon the other without mingling togither, because the fall thereof is broken by means of the gentle pouring upon the trencher. Some holde opinion that the same may also bee perfourmed with a round tofte. But I thinke that you must have a speciall care herein, that the heaviest liquor do lie in the bottome, and that you proceed from lighter to lighter, so as the lightest or most aereous or fierie bee placed uppermost, for each thing desires to bee in his naturall place.
The Jewell House of Art and Nature, conteining diverse rare and profitable Inventions, together with sundry new experimentes in the Art of Husbandry, Distillation, and Moulding. By Hugh Platte. London: Peter Short, 1597.
Monday, January 16, 2017
Hugh Platt on Inke...
35 How to write both blew and redde letters at once, with one selfe-same Inke and pen, and upon the same paper.
Put the quantitie of Hasell nut of Lytmas blewe to three spoonfuls of conduit water, wherin some Gumme Arabicke is dissolved, and when it hath setled the space of one hower, if you write therewith you shall have perfect blewe letters, and if you dip a pencill in the juice of Lymmons, that is drained from his residence, and do wet some part of the paper therwith, and after let your paper drie againe, and then write upon the place where the iuice of the Lymmon was laid, with your former blew inke, the letters will suddenlie become red, and in all the rest of the paper the letters will be blew. And so you may also make partie letters and other fansies, if you wet your paper accordinglie. Sapius probatum. [p.38]
36 To keepe Inke from freezing and moulding.
Put a few drops of Aqua vita therein, and then it wil not freeze in the hardest Winter than can happen, and in Sommer time if you put salt therein it will not waxe moldie as I have been crediblie informed. [p.38]
39 A Gall water very necessarie to mingle with your Inke, as it groweth thick in your standish or inkhorne.
Slice or beat some of the best Galles, and put them in a glass of faire water, and when the have given some reasonable tincture to the water, you may mix the same with your inke as it thickneth: this is a more kindlie waie, then to use either faire water, beere or vineger instead thereof.But when the water beginnieth to be over olde and out of date, you must then throw away the same and make fresh. [p.43]
40 How to remove olde letters, that be almost worn out of sight.
This is performed by rubbing them over carefully with the gall water aforesaid being wel prepared, for that will strike afresh hew again into the old and outworne Coppres. These two secrets I learned verie lately of a skilful & well conceipted gentleman, who hath made some practises thereof himselfe, and the first I can warrant by mine owne triall. [p.43]
42 How to paint or limne with the colours that are taken from hearbs or flowers.
Some drie the leaves of hearbes or flowers, which carrie any deep colour in them, and if there be severall colours upon one leafe, they devide them, and keep each colour by itself, grinding the same upon a Marble, and after keepe it in close glasses or leaded pots, sufficiently defended from the aire. If you grind the leaves of a white rose with a little Allome, it will give a yellow colour, and so will the purple part of the leave of the flower deluce, ground with a little lime, yeeld a good and perfect greene. Some expresse the iuice of herbs or flowers, and then evaporat either in balneo or in the sun so much as wil ascent, spreding y' self [velt?] thinly upo' the bottoms & sides of small dishes, & after, then set y' same in the sun to dry, & then grind with gumme water as they have cause to use it. Some infuse the moist, and some the drie leafe, with faire water, and so soone as the beautiful hew of the leaves begin the vade, they dreine away the water, and make an addition of fresh leaves ther'unto, and so change their leaves often, that they may purchase to the inselves nothing else but the livelie and brigth tincture of everie hearbe or flower. Those two colours of the Rose, & Flower-deluse I learned of master Bateman sometime the parson of Newington a most excellent lymner.
45 To make bad paper to beare ynke in some reasonable manner.
Rub your paper wel over with the fine powder or dust of Rosen and Sandtach mingled in equall parts before you write therwith. Note that you must tie the powder hard in a rag of Laune or thin Cambrick, and therewith rub the paper throughly well, This is a necessarie secret for students, whereby they may note in the mergentes of their bookes if the paper should happen to sinke, which is an especiall fault in many of our late yeere bookes of the Law.
The Jewell House of Art and Nature, conteining diverse rare and profitable Inventions, together with sundry new experimentes in the Art of Husbandry, Distillation, and Moulding. By Hugh Platte. London: Peter Short, 1597.
Put the quantitie of Hasell nut of Lytmas blewe to three spoonfuls of conduit water, wherin some Gumme Arabicke is dissolved, and when it hath setled the space of one hower, if you write therewith you shall have perfect blewe letters, and if you dip a pencill in the juice of Lymmons, that is drained from his residence, and do wet some part of the paper therwith, and after let your paper drie againe, and then write upon the place where the iuice of the Lymmon was laid, with your former blew inke, the letters will suddenlie become red, and in all the rest of the paper the letters will be blew. And so you may also make partie letters and other fansies, if you wet your paper accordinglie. Sapius probatum. [p.38]
36 To keepe Inke from freezing and moulding.
Put a few drops of Aqua vita therein, and then it wil not freeze in the hardest Winter than can happen, and in Sommer time if you put salt therein it will not waxe moldie as I have been crediblie informed. [p.38]
39 A Gall water very necessarie to mingle with your Inke, as it groweth thick in your standish or inkhorne.
Slice or beat some of the best Galles, and put them in a glass of faire water, and when the have given some reasonable tincture to the water, you may mix the same with your inke as it thickneth: this is a more kindlie waie, then to use either faire water, beere or vineger instead thereof.But when the water beginnieth to be over olde and out of date, you must then throw away the same and make fresh. [p.43]
40 How to remove olde letters, that be almost worn out of sight.
This is performed by rubbing them over carefully with the gall water aforesaid being wel prepared, for that will strike afresh hew again into the old and outworne Coppres. These two secrets I learned verie lately of a skilful & well conceipted gentleman, who hath made some practises thereof himselfe, and the first I can warrant by mine owne triall. [p.43]
42 How to paint or limne with the colours that are taken from hearbs or flowers.
Some drie the leaves of hearbes or flowers, which carrie any deep colour in them, and if there be severall colours upon one leafe, they devide them, and keep each colour by itself, grinding the same upon a Marble, and after keepe it in close glasses or leaded pots, sufficiently defended from the aire. If you grind the leaves of a white rose with a little Allome, it will give a yellow colour, and so will the purple part of the leave of the flower deluce, ground with a little lime, yeeld a good and perfect greene. Some expresse the iuice of herbs or flowers, and then evaporat either in balneo or in the sun so much as wil ascent, spreding y' self [velt?] thinly upo' the bottoms & sides of small dishes, & after, then set y' same in the sun to dry, & then grind with gumme water as they have cause to use it. Some infuse the moist, and some the drie leafe, with faire water, and so soone as the beautiful hew of the leaves begin the vade, they dreine away the water, and make an addition of fresh leaves ther'unto, and so change their leaves often, that they may purchase to the inselves nothing else but the livelie and brigth tincture of everie hearbe or flower. Those two colours of the Rose, & Flower-deluse I learned of master Bateman sometime the parson of Newington a most excellent lymner.
45 To make bad paper to beare ynke in some reasonable manner.
Rub your paper wel over with the fine powder or dust of Rosen and Sandtach mingled in equall parts before you write therwith. Note that you must tie the powder hard in a rag of Laune or thin Cambrick, and therewith rub the paper throughly well, This is a necessarie secret for students, whereby they may note in the mergentes of their bookes if the paper should happen to sinke, which is an especiall fault in many of our late yeere bookes of the Law.
The Jewell House of Art and Nature, conteining diverse rare and profitable Inventions, together with sundry new experimentes in the Art of Husbandry, Distillation, and Moulding. By Hugh Platte. London: Peter Short, 1597.
Wednesday, January 4, 2017
A fresh laid egge - the Egg Float Test explained
Sometime in the middle of the 16th century
someone figured out that a fresh laid chicken egg has a similar density as
certain strengths of solutions. The egg will float instead of sink as it would
in plain water, indicating a specific strength or density. First mentioned in
soap making manuals to check the strength of lye (1558), it quickly surfaced
both in cooking recipes to check the strength of brine (1597), a solution of
salt & water, and brewing recipes to check the strength of must (1594), a
solution of fruit or honey sugars & water.
”A very exquisite soap, made of diverse things.
”To keepe lard in season.
Like with soap, brewing with different sugar strengths makes for different types of brews. The stronger the mead the longer it can keep, as Digby’s To Make Metheglin advises: “If you would have it to drink within two or three months, let it be no stronger then to bear an Egg to the top of the water. If you would have it keep six months, or longer, before you drink it, let it bear up the Egg the breadth of two pence above the water. This is the surer way to proportion your honey then by measure.” Medieval meads are usually fermented using ale yeast, which generally dies off once the alcohol level reaches about 10%. As an alcohol level of about 10-12% will kill off most contaminants responsible for spoiling meads and fruit wines, a higher starting sugar level resulting in a higher alcohol percentage would therefore allow the mead to keep longer. Unlike the soap & brine recipes, the brewing egg does not float horizontal but vertical, as Digby’s Mr. Corsellises Antwerp Meath mentions “so strong that an Egge may swim in it with the end upwards”, indicating an intermediate strength between suspended and floating.
Published by the Aethelmearc Gazette January 8th, 2017
https://aethelmearcgazette.com/2017/01/08/a-fresh-laid-egge/
Butler, Charles. The Feminine Monarchie. Oxford: 1609.
Clutium, Theodorum Van de Byen. Leyden: Jan Claesz van Dorp, Inde Vergulde Son, 1597.
Dawson, Thomas. The second part of the good hus-wiues iewell, London: E. Allde for Edward, 1597.
Krupp, Christina M. & Gillen, Bill. Making Medieval Mead, or Mead Before Digby. The Compleat Anachronist #120. Milpitas: SCA Inc, 2003. (includes the Complete Receipt Books of Ladie Elynor Fettiplace, 1604).
Initially the only available references for the egg
test in brewing were from the copious but out of period 1669 cookbook The Closet of the Eminently Learned Sir
Kenelme Digby Knight Opened. Even though this manuscript came from Digby’s
lifelong collection of recipes and was posthumously published several years
after his death so could be seen as probably period, his recipes are much more
contemporary to 17th century recipes than to what is found before.
For instance, many recipes mentioned in Digby use ingredients and techniques
not yet found, or commonly used, in our period of study. The addition of
citrus, like lemons, and the use of raisins, which is common in Digby, is not
found in any of the pre 1600 recipes. And the technique of aging in the bottle,
often for a sparkling beverage, is something that does not match with the
medieval method of serving mead young or aging in wooden casks and barrels
either. But even though the recipes themselves may not be period, they do tend
to include more information on the actual process and can serve as a good
almost period explanation on previously unexplained techniques.
It was not until I delved deeper into period mead making
that I came across four late 16th century brewing recipes mentioning
the egg float test, and was finally able to firmly place this technique within
our time of study for all three crafts: soap making, cooking and brewing. This
article explores the underlying process and easy application of this intriguing
trick of science!
But doesn’t a floating egg mean the egg is spoiled? It
depends. The floating egg technique works by way of the internal design of an
egg, which includes an air sack at the rounded end of the egg for the bird
embryo to breath. A fresh egg has a relatively small air sack but as the egg shell
is slightly porous over time the size of the air sack increases as the contents
of the egg slowly evaporate and dry out. As an old egg will have a large air
sack, when put into water it will bob up and float. This test is still used in
our modern times to test to see if an egg is fit to eat before cracking it and not
be surprised with a sulfur bomb!
Because the size of the air sack changes over time,
interfering with the results of our density test, it is very important to use a
fresh egg which has not yet had time to evaporate. It is also important to
check the supposedly fresh egg as eggs sold in the supermarket are not always
as fresh as you might assume (check the sell by dates or even better, get a local
backyard egg). To do this, before every density test calibrate your egg in
plain water to make sure it sinks flat to the bottom, with both butt and tip
level. Use a wide mouth glass jar and tongs to place the egg on the bottom as
it can sink so fast it cracks in bigger jars.
The density or specific gravity of water is 1. When
minerals like salts or sugars are dissolved into water the extra particles
change the density of the solution by making it more crowded, or dense. A fresh
egg has a density between 1.03-1.1 g/ml which means it would be borne, or
float, by a solution of a density matching or exceeding 1.03-1.1 g/ml. A
saturated salt solution, or brine, has a density of about 1.2 g/ml, a wood ash
lye solution for laundry soap a density of about 1.11 g/ml and a brewing
solution would be between 1.06-1.1 g/ml – all fairly close together and why
using the egg test works, in some way or another, for all three.
In modern brewing a hydrometer is used to take a
starting (before fermentation) and finishing (after fermentation) gravity
reading. Determining the difference of sugars between start and end makes it
possible to calculate the percentage of alcohol produced by the yeast from that
difference (what is gone has been consumed by the yeast and thus converted into
alcohol). As medieval brewers were not aware of the micro-biology involved in
brewing and artificially stopping the yeast for a specific alcohol content was
not understood (how they wished to know what caused the summer ‘boiling’ and
consequent explosions of wine!), all the brewer needed to know was if there was
the right amount of sugar for proper fermentation.
Most recipes ask for so many pounds of honey to so
much water, why should you go through the trouble of checking the density to
make must? For two reasons, the first being that not all honey is created
equal. A thick syrupy honey created in a dry year will have more sugar per
liquid volume than a thin, runny honey. Both will make mead, but if you
measured a thin honey to make sweet mead you might be unpleasantly surprised at
the dry white wine-like mead you ended up with... Secondly, in period all honey
would have been used for brewing, not just the easy to extract. The centrifuge
type honey extruder is a modern convenience and allows for high yield with
minimal processing. In period honey would be extracted by hand, first by
breaking up the combs to leak out as much as they could, and then by washing
the broken up combs in warm water to dissolve the remaining and any
crystallized honey. This honey/water mixture would be of unknown strength and
would have to be checked before brewing, as not enough fermentable sugars could
result in an easily spoiled brew and too much sugar can inhibit yeast growth,
stalling fermentation and giving competitors a change. I don’t doubt master
brewers of the time could eyeball or taste and have a perfect brew each time,
but for the less initiated household brewer (and modern re-enactor) it is nice
to be able to check with a visual aide, as the Digby recipe Mr. Pierce’s Excellent White Metheglin confirms:
“When it is
blood-warm, put the honey to it, about one part, to four of water; but because
this doth not determine the proportions exactly (for some honey will make it
stronger then other) you must do that by bearing up an Egge.”
Would
any kind of fresh egg work? Not until the Digby recipe Mr. Corsellises Antwerp Meath did a recipe specify that the egg
should be a hen’s egg “as above, an Hens
Egge may swim with the point upwards”. Even so, with differences in breed,
health, age and diet the egg size & shape can differ as well. For the best
results, Digby’s Mr. Pierce’s recipe
advises to test several eggs and pick out the most average one, both in
freshness and shape.
“… and put a
good number, (ten or twelve) New-laid-eggs into it, and as round ones as may
be; For long ones will deceive you in the swiming; and stale ones, being
lighter then new, will emerge out of the Liquor, the breadth of a sixpence,
when new ones will not a groats-breadth. Therefore you take many, that you make
a medium of their several emergings; unless you be certain, that they which you
use, are immediately then laid and very round.”
But
what does “beare an egge” mean? How
does that look like? It depends on the density you’re looking for and the
solution you are playing with. For instance, in soap making two densities are
used; a strong one to make laundry soap and a weaker one to make body soap. While
in the laundry soap recipe the egg is floating horizontally at the surface
(with about the size of a quarter above the surface), as the The seconde part of the Secretes of Master
Alexis of Piemont of 1560 puts “the
Egge into it, and whiles the egge remaineth aboue”; the body soap recipe for
shampoo uses “stronge lye that will beare
an egge swimminge betwene two waters”, or, the egg is suspended in the
middle.
Soapmaking
lye looks like: laundry strength lye, and shampoo
strength lye.
This shampoo recipe is the earliest sample I've found of
the egg float density test and is part of the 1558 manuscript The secretes
of the reuerende Maister Alexis of Piemount Containyng excellent remedies
against diuers disease by Girolamo Ruscelli.
”A very exquisite soap, made of diverse things.
Take aluminis
catini (burnt cream of tartar), quicklime one part, strong lye that will
suspend and egg in the middle, three pottels, a pot of common oil; mix all well
together, put into it the white of an egg well beaten (dispersant), and a
dishful of wheat flour (thickener), and an ounce of roman vitriol (cupric
sulfate), or red lead (lead oxide pigment) well beaten into powder, an mix
continuously for the space of three hours, then let it rest, by the space of a
day, and it will be right and perfect. Finally, take it out, and cut it in
pieces: afterwards set it to dry two days, in the wind, but not in the sun.
Always use this soap, when you want to wash your hair, for it is very
wholesome, and makes fair hair.”
(Translated by Susan Verberg)
As
the density of a saturated salt solution is fairly strong, the egg in a salt
solution would also float horizontally at the surface, similar to laundry soap
strength lye. The recipe in the 1597 cookbook The second part of the good
hus-wiues iewell by Thomas Dawson uses this technique to make sure the brine
is saturated and is the earliest mention I’ve found of the egg float test in a
cookbook. Apparently, it is also used for numerous pickling recipes of the new
world colonies but I have not found any period mentions of that as of yet.
”To keepe lard in season.
CUt your lard in faire peeces, and salt it well with
white salte, euery péece with your hand, and lay it in a close vessel then take
faire running water, and much white salt in it, to make it brine, the~ boile it
vntill it beare an Egge, then put it into your Lard and keepe it close.”
Like with soap, brewing with different sugar strengths makes for different types of brews. The stronger the mead the longer it can keep, as Digby’s To Make Metheglin advises: “If you would have it to drink within two or three months, let it be no stronger then to bear an Egg to the top of the water. If you would have it keep six months, or longer, before you drink it, let it bear up the Egg the breadth of two pence above the water. This is the surer way to proportion your honey then by measure.” Medieval meads are usually fermented using ale yeast, which generally dies off once the alcohol level reaches about 10%. As an alcohol level of about 10-12% will kill off most contaminants responsible for spoiling meads and fruit wines, a higher starting sugar level resulting in a higher alcohol percentage would therefore allow the mead to keep longer. Unlike the soap & brine recipes, the brewing egg does not float horizontal but vertical, as Digby’s Mr. Corsellises Antwerp Meath mentions “so strong that an Egge may swim in it with the end upwards”, indicating an intermediate strength between suspended and floating.
Both the soap making recipes and the brine recipes
indicate to boil first, then measure – the brewing recipes are not so certain
and often recommend to test the strength before boiling, as Digby’s To Make Metheglin shows: “And the time of the tryal of the strength
is, when you incorporate the honey and water together, before the boiling of
it.” apparently not realizing boiling evaporates water thereby changing the
density. The recipes can also not quite make up their mind if the must should
be cold, blood warm or boiling, which could indicate they did not understand
how temperature affects specific gravity either, as shown in the 1597 Dutch
beekeeping manual “Van de Byen” by
Theodorus Clutius; “and let it cook /
until an Egg can float in the liquid / then set it off the fire”, which could
also resulted in a nicely boiled egg if the egg is not removed... As medieval
recipes over many disciplines have a tendency to be brief to the point of missing
pertinent information, it is entirely possible the period brewer knew to remove
the egg and cool down the must, but did not bother to note that down. The 1616
Danish cookbook Koge Bog advises to “put
an egg or two into this lukewarm brew so that there is a part of egg as big as
a 2 shilling over the water then it is sweet and fat enough” which probably
is the most accurate measurement
.
Bees coming out of a hive to drive off
an intruder.
Following
are two 16th century recipes which specifically mention using the
egg float test:
Jewell House of Art and Nature by Hugh Platt, 1594.
76
A receipt for the making of an artificiall Malmesey.
Take four
gallons of conduit water, into the which put one gallon of good English honie,
stirre the honie well till it be dissolved in the water, set this water in a
copper pan upon a gentle fire, & as there ariseth any skumme take it off
with a goose wing or a Skimmer, and when it hath simpered about an hour, then
put in a new laid egge into the water, which will sinke presentlie, then
continue your first fire without any great encrease, and also your skimming so
long as any skim doth arise, and when this egge beginneth to floate aloft and
sinketh no more, then put in another new laide egge, which wil sinke likewise,
& when that second egge doth also swim aloft with the fyrst egge, let the
water continue on the fyre a Paternoster while, then take it off, and beeing
colde, put the same into some roundelet, fylling the roundelet brimful. And in
the middest of this roudelet hand a bagge, wherein first put some reasonable
weight or peize, and to everie eight gallons of liquor two nutmegges groselie
beaten, twentie Cloves, a rase or two of Ginger, and a sticke of Cynamon of a
fynger length. Set your roundelet in the sunne, in some hot Leades or other
place, where the sunne shineth continuallie for three whole monethes, covering
the bung-hole from the raine, and now and then fylling it uppe with more of the
same composition as it wasteth. This I learned of an English traveyler, who
advised me to make the same alwaies about the middest of Maie, that it might
have 3. hot moneths togither to work it to his ful perfection. […]
“Van de Byen” (Of the Bees) by Theodorus
Clutius, 1597
To
make mead.
One shall
take the rest that stayed in the basket / from the dripping of the raw honey or
zeem / and wash it with hot water / so that all the sweetness goes into the
water / until you have a tub full or two / or as much as you want: Then put this liquid in the kettle / and let
it cook / until an Egg can float in the liquid / then set it off the fire / and
pour it into the barrels and let it cool / add some yeast of beer / and set it
to rise and work / and althus filling the barrel / so the filthiness may overflow
/ and when it does not bubble or work / so shall one close up the barrel / and
let it rest. This is the way to make mead / some put in a piece of tied cloth
some cinnamon / ginger / nutmeg / cloves and similar spices / to give the mead
a good taste and scent. (Translated by Susan Verberg)
Between the end of the 16th century and the
publishing of Digby’s cookbook a number of mead recipes are found to use a
similar egg float technique as described in Digby, but with old-fashioned ingredients
and techniques. This is an interesting time of transition, as by the 16th
century not only could the average person read, due to cheaper & more
extensive trade unusual ingredients like spices, sugar, citrus, chemicals &
pigments became available to the common man. With the invention of the printing
press, vernacular as opposed Latin editions started to appear and by the
mid-sixteenth century secrets books were flooding off the presses. It was a great
time for exploration, both of the sea and in the mind, not in the least helped
by the success of the numerous secrets books, each claiming to expose trade
secrets never seen before, which greatly helped to spread knowledge which before
was only accessible to the educated elite. This period of transition shows in
the differences between Digby’s work and our time of interest, both in
ingredients used and in his often elaborate and detailed explanations.
Schematic of coins used, notice
the similarity between a Groat and our modern Quarter.
Numerous recipes in Digby mention the use of coins,
like penny, threepence, groat (about 20mm), sixpence & shilling (Scum, 24).
Diameter of the coin would be used as a size measurement of the bit of shell
sticking above the water surface, and averages a ratio of 3:1 to 4:1 of water
to honey dilution (Scum, 24), which are good fermenting ratios. This type of
measurement seems to become fairly universal in later times as observed in many
of the Digby recipes and later in the US Colonial soap making lye measurements
which often also specify an area the size of a coin, in this case a quarter.
Even though coins are mentioned in the barely out of period 1604 Complete Receipt Books of Ladie Elynor
Fettiplace “so strong of honie that
it will cover an egg to the breadth of two pence”, and the 1609 The Feminine Monarchie “make it to bear an egge the breath of a
groat”, the period recipes do not specify how the egg should float, only
that is should.
So
after all this, where do you start? With a fresh egg no more than two days old,
of the roundest kind, weighing less than or about 2 ounces. Making a brine
solution is easiest: add enough salt until it stops dissolving, which means a
saturated solution is reached, place the egg, and slowly add water until it
floats just as the recipe likes it. To test lye for soap making the egg would
be used after the heated evaporated lye is cooled down, which allows for
contaminant minerals to settle out of solution and thus not interfere with the
remaining solution’s density (for more information on leaching lye and making
soft soap see the Bibliography). For brewing, make your honey must first, heat and
evaporate as needed, let cool down to blood temperature, and add an egg. If the
egg sinks the must is too weak, if it floats close to tipping or tips, the must
is too strong. As the 1609 beekeeping manual The Feminine Monarchie instructs: “If the liquor be not strong enough to beare an egge the breath of a
two-pēce above it, thē put so much of your course hony into it, as wil give it
that strength: or rather, when it is so strong powre in more water (stirring it
with the liquor) until the egge sinke.” In other words; if it is too weak,
add more honey, stir well to make sure the sugars are completely dissolved, and
try again. If too strong, add some water, stir well, and try again. As you can imagine,
it is easier to start with too strong a solution and dilute it, than to start
with a weak solution and try to incrementally dissolve more sugars into it.
The
table below matches egg position with specific gravity, giving us an idea of
what to aim for. Egg readings are given for both 10% tolerance yeast (ale
yeast) and 12% tolerance yeast. (from The
Egg Test)
mead
|
start SG
|
egg
|
start SG
|
egg
|
style
|
10% yeast
|
reading
|
12% yeast
|
reading
|
dry mead
|
1.085
|
touches
|
1.1
|
20mm
|
Medium
|
1.095
|
18mm
|
1.11
|
26mm
|
Sweet
|
1.1
|
20mm
|
1.12
|
30mm
|
Dessert
|
1.1 +
|
> 20mm
|
1.2 +
|
30mm +
|
To
make sure there is enough sugar for the yeast to feed on, the egg should float.
But if it starts to tip over and not reliably float point up anymore, the
solution has become too strong with too much honey sugar for the yeast to
properly work and fermentation will likely stall. The average range of 1.08 to
1.12 g/ml at which the average, round fresh laid egg floats point up is also
the ideal range of sugar content for starting a successful mead. And now that you
have everything you need to make a successful solution using medieval
techniques, whether it be for soapmaking, cooking or brewing, and are able to properly
document it, let the experiments begin!
I would like to express my thanks to Mistress Roheisa le Sarjent from Lochac for her article The Egg Test for Period Brewers and Mead Makers. It proved a great starting point as we’re working from similar sources, and I’m grateful to find the heavy lifting of figuring out egg readings already done. Tak!
I would like to express my thanks to Mistress Roheisa le Sarjent from Lochac for her article The Egg Test for Period Brewers and Mead Makers. It proved a great starting point as we’re working from similar sources, and I’m grateful to find the heavy lifting of figuring out egg readings already done. Tak!
“Dryckeslag, Nordisk familjebok” from
Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus or
History of the Northern People, by Olaus
Magnus, printed in Rome
1555.
Published by the Aethelmearc Gazette January 8th, 2017
https://aethelmearcgazette.com/2017/01/08/a-fresh-laid-egge/
REFERENCES
Anonymous, Koge Bog: Indeholdendis et hundrede
fornødene stycker etc. Kiøbenhaffn (Copenhagen):
Aff Salomone Sartorio, 1616. http://www.forest.gen.nz/Medieval/articles/cooking/1616.html
https://books.google.com/books?id=f5tbAAAAMAAJ&dq=the+feminine+monarchie+butler&source=gbs_navlinks_s
(1623). Transcription by Susan Verberg.
Clutium, Theodorum Van de Byen. Leyden: Jan Claesz van Dorp, Inde Vergulde Son, 1597.
https://books.google.com/books?id=Y0NnAAAAcAAJ&dq=van+de+byen&source=gbs_navlinks_s
Transcription by Susan
Verberg.
Digby, Kenelme. The Closet of the Eminently Learned Sir
Kenelme Digby Knight Opened, 1669
The Project Gutenberg EBook
of The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Knight
Opened. Anne MacDonell (ed.), 2005 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16441
Dawson, Thomas. The second part of the good hus-wiues iewell, London: E. Allde for Edward, 1597.
http://www.eebo.chadwyck.com
Density values from http://homesteadlaboratory.blogspot.com/2014/02/historical-lye-making-part-2.html
Krupp, Christina M. & Gillen, Bill. Making Medieval Mead, or Mead Before Digby. The Compleat Anachronist #120. Milpitas: SCA Inc, 2003. (includes the Complete Receipt Books of Ladie Elynor Fettiplace, 1604).
Platt, Hugh. Jewell House of Art and Nature. 1594.
London: Peter Short. http://eebo.chadwyck.com/ Transcription
by Susan Verberg
Ruscelli, Girolamo. The secretes of
the reuerende Maister Alexis of Piemount. London: John Kingstone, 1558.
http://www.eebo.chadwyck.com.
Ruscelli, Girolamo. The seconde part
of the Secretes of Master Alexis of Piemont. London: John Kyndon, 1560.
http://www.eebo.chadwyck.com.
SCUM,
To Bear An Egge, Making mead with
medieval hydrometers, by Lord Corwin of Darkwater. SCUM 16, p.21-28.
Sibly, Belinda. The Egg Test for Period Brewers and Mead Makers, 2004
Sibly, Belinda. The Egg Test for Period Brewers and Mead Makers, 2004
Mistress Roheisa le Sarjent,
Cockatrice, May AS 49, p.20-29.
http://brewers.lochac.sca.org/files/2014/02/The-Egg-test-for-Period-Brewers2.pdf
More information on leaching
soapmaking lye:
https://www.academia.edu/27755101/Of_Potash_and_Lye
More information on making
medieval soft soap:
https://www.academia.edu/27757652/To_Make_Black_Sope
More information on brewing
with honey: Of Hony, a Collection of
Medieval Brewing Recipes.
WEBSITE
forthcoming…
To find a groat, and other
period coins: http://alphaofficium.weebly.com/apps/search?q=groat
Image of fresh egg test from http://media.finedictionary.com/pictures/243/38/9971.jpg
Photographs of soap making
lye by Susan Verberg, 2016.
Bees coming out of a hive to
drive off an intruder.
Museum Meermanno, MMW, 10 B 25, Folio 37r - http://bestiary.ca/beasts/beastgallery260.htm#
“Dryckeslag,
Nordisk familjebok” from Historia de
gentibus septentrionalibus, by Olaus Magnus, Rome, 1555.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Historia_de_gentibus_septentrionalibus
Tuesday, December 20, 2016
To helpe Wine that reboileth.
A very interesting piece on the refermentation of wine, and the lack of knowledge why...
If any sweete Wines happen to reboile in the hot part of the Summer (as I have often seen, and as manie Vinteners to their great losse have oftentimes felt) then Placentius willeth a little peece or cantle of Cheese to be put into the vessell, and presently a strange effect will follow. Hoc ex anchora famis & sitis. I believe that the corporation of Vintners would give twentie pound yearely to have this secrete warranted to bee true. For the best remedy which they have, is to draw the wine of from the lee into'other cleane caske, thereby perswading themselves to coole the wine, and to stay the boyling thereof. But after a while the inward fire oftentimes beginneth a fresh workmanship, and emunstrateth all their labour, I would esteeme him for a learned Vintner, and worthie to have the next auoydance of Bacchus his chaire, that could give me the true reason of this reboiling of wines. But because I have allotted so great a place of honour to him that can but shewe the reason onely thereof, therefor I will not presume nor professe to knowe the cause efficient, but I durft undertake to perfourme the remedie, if I thought my rewarde would not be somewhat like unto his, that within this few yeares taught diverse of the companie to draw out of a Hogges-head of wine lees, 10 gallons of clear wine at the least, which beeing trickt, or compassed, or at the least mingled with other wine, hath ever since by diverse Vintners beene retailed for wine, whereas before it was wholie solde for lees to the Aqua vitae men. And this is the reason why there hath never since been the like store of lees to make Aqua vitae of, as before the discoverie if this conceit, and that the lees of many Cellors which before were Liquid, are now become stiffe like paste, and may verie well be wrought up into the forme of bals. And if I be not deceived, the first practize thereof began in Paternoster row, and within these few years, but I feare by this time, it is a parcell of manie mens Creede that wil never be left wil the worlds end. Wel, the poore fellow got hardly a good sute of apparell amongst diverse of them to whom hee disclosed the secrete, although some one of them could tell which way presently to raise 30 or 40 .li. per annu' unto themselves. And therefor I see it is no offring of skill in these days to Vintners.
But the better course were to take a Taverne and get a Hollibush if France were more open, and a little more freed of the excessive impost, and so to draw wines as artificially as the best of them. For I can assure you I have almost the whole art as it is this day in use amongest the Vintners, written in a prettie volume entituled, Secreta dei pampinei. And if I durft here so boldly as I could, both truly & largely write of those iumbling sleights, that are to too often practized in our naturall wines by some of the Coopers of London, to the great benefite of the Marchant and Vintner, although themselves, poore foules, get nothing thereby but the hooping of the vessels, and now and then a Can of wine for their labours, a man would wonder from whence such great varietie of iugling should growe or spring, and howe there plaine fellows that nevre read their Grammer, nay scarely know their A, B, C, should be able to run through Ouids Metamorphosis as they doe at midnight. And yet I cannot altogither blame either the Cooper, or the Vintners man for practicing of these alterations, transmutations, and sometimes even real transubstantiations, of white wine into Claret, & old lags of Sacks or Malmesies, with malassoes into Muskadels.
For we are growne so nice in taste, that almost no wines unless they be more pleasant than they can be of the Grape will content us, nay no colour unlesse it be perfect, fine and bright, will satisfie our wanton eyes, whereupon (as I have been creedibly enfourmed by some that have seene the practize in Spaine) they are forced even there to enterlace now and then a lay of Lime with the Sacke grape in the expression thereby to bring their Sackes to bee of a more white colour into England then is naturall unto them, or then the Spaniardes themselves will brooke or endure, who will drinke no other Sackes them such as be of an Amber colour. This makes the Vintners to tricke or compasse all their natural wines if they bee a little hard, with Bastarde to make them sweeter, if they pricke a little they have a decoction of honie with a few Cloves to deceive the taste, if they be clowdie or not perfect fine, they give them either the white or the yellow, parrell, according to the naturall colour of the Wines, wherein they must use Egges, milke, Baysalt, & Conduit water well beaten and laboured together with a stubbed rodde, and then wrought soundlie together with a parrelling staffe, which parrell for the most part in one night (unless the Wines happen to have a flickering Lee) will cause them to fine, whereby you may presently drawe at certaine. But this is daungerous unless it be in a house well customed, for that the Wine may not lie too long upon his parell. And some Wines will not endure long after you have racked them from their parell. Note the wholesomnesse of these Lees to make Aqua Vitae withall. But when the Wines doe rope or beginne to faile or faint in themselves, either in substaunce or in colour, either by age, by the fault of Caske, soyle, salt water, or other accident, then manie tymes the Vintener is driven to his hard shiftes, and then hee helpeth himselfe with Allome, with Turnsole [tournisol, or litmus], Starch, and with manie other Drugges, and aromaticall ware which he fetcheth from the Apothecarie, the particulars whereof I coulde set downe and applie even as they have beene a long time (till within these fewe yeeres) practized in one of the most authentique Tavernes of my time. But my purpose is onely to put some in minde of their grosse night-woorkes which discover themselves by Candlelight at their Celler Windowes, whishing them to leave all unwholesome practizes for mans bodie, least they should heereafter against my will force mee to publish them to the worlde, I shoulde drawe my Countrey men into such a liking of our Royston Grape, that in the ende they woulde for the most part content themselves with their English and naturall drinke, without raunging so farre for forreine Wines.
The Jewell House of Art and Nature, conteining diverse rare and profitable Inventions, together with sundry new experimentes in the Art of Husbandry, Distillation, and Moulding. By Hugh Platte. London: Peter Short, 1597. Access through Early English Books Online.
If any sweete Wines happen to reboile in the hot part of the Summer (as I have often seen, and as manie Vinteners to their great losse have oftentimes felt) then Placentius willeth a little peece or cantle of Cheese to be put into the vessell, and presently a strange effect will follow. Hoc ex anchora famis & sitis. I believe that the corporation of Vintners would give twentie pound yearely to have this secrete warranted to bee true. For the best remedy which they have, is to draw the wine of from the lee into'other cleane caske, thereby perswading themselves to coole the wine, and to stay the boyling thereof. But after a while the inward fire oftentimes beginneth a fresh workmanship, and emunstrateth all their labour, I would esteeme him for a learned Vintner, and worthie to have the next auoydance of Bacchus his chaire, that could give me the true reason of this reboiling of wines. But because I have allotted so great a place of honour to him that can but shewe the reason onely thereof, therefor I will not presume nor professe to knowe the cause efficient, but I durft undertake to perfourme the remedie, if I thought my rewarde would not be somewhat like unto his, that within this few yeares taught diverse of the companie to draw out of a Hogges-head of wine lees, 10 gallons of clear wine at the least, which beeing trickt, or compassed, or at the least mingled with other wine, hath ever since by diverse Vintners beene retailed for wine, whereas before it was wholie solde for lees to the Aqua vitae men. And this is the reason why there hath never since been the like store of lees to make Aqua vitae of, as before the discoverie if this conceit, and that the lees of many Cellors which before were Liquid, are now become stiffe like paste, and may verie well be wrought up into the forme of bals. And if I be not deceived, the first practize thereof began in Paternoster row, and within these few years, but I feare by this time, it is a parcell of manie mens Creede that wil never be left wil the worlds end. Wel, the poore fellow got hardly a good sute of apparell amongst diverse of them to whom hee disclosed the secrete, although some one of them could tell which way presently to raise 30 or 40 .li. per annu' unto themselves. And therefor I see it is no offring of skill in these days to Vintners.
But the better course were to take a Taverne and get a Hollibush if France were more open, and a little more freed of the excessive impost, and so to draw wines as artificially as the best of them. For I can assure you I have almost the whole art as it is this day in use amongest the Vintners, written in a prettie volume entituled, Secreta dei pampinei. And if I durft here so boldly as I could, both truly & largely write of those iumbling sleights, that are to too often practized in our naturall wines by some of the Coopers of London, to the great benefite of the Marchant and Vintner, although themselves, poore foules, get nothing thereby but the hooping of the vessels, and now and then a Can of wine for their labours, a man would wonder from whence such great varietie of iugling should growe or spring, and howe there plaine fellows that nevre read their Grammer, nay scarely know their A, B, C, should be able to run through Ouids Metamorphosis as they doe at midnight. And yet I cannot altogither blame either the Cooper, or the Vintners man for practicing of these alterations, transmutations, and sometimes even real transubstantiations, of white wine into Claret, & old lags of Sacks or Malmesies, with malassoes into Muskadels.
For we are growne so nice in taste, that almost no wines unless they be more pleasant than they can be of the Grape will content us, nay no colour unlesse it be perfect, fine and bright, will satisfie our wanton eyes, whereupon (as I have been creedibly enfourmed by some that have seene the practize in Spaine) they are forced even there to enterlace now and then a lay of Lime with the Sacke grape in the expression thereby to bring their Sackes to bee of a more white colour into England then is naturall unto them, or then the Spaniardes themselves will brooke or endure, who will drinke no other Sackes them such as be of an Amber colour. This makes the Vintners to tricke or compasse all their natural wines if they bee a little hard, with Bastarde to make them sweeter, if they pricke a little they have a decoction of honie with a few Cloves to deceive the taste, if they be clowdie or not perfect fine, they give them either the white or the yellow, parrell, according to the naturall colour of the Wines, wherein they must use Egges, milke, Baysalt, & Conduit water well beaten and laboured together with a stubbed rodde, and then wrought soundlie together with a parrelling staffe, which parrell for the most part in one night (unless the Wines happen to have a flickering Lee) will cause them to fine, whereby you may presently drawe at certaine. But this is daungerous unless it be in a house well customed, for that the Wine may not lie too long upon his parell. And some Wines will not endure long after you have racked them from their parell. Note the wholesomnesse of these Lees to make Aqua Vitae withall. But when the Wines doe rope or beginne to faile or faint in themselves, either in substaunce or in colour, either by age, by the fault of Caske, soyle, salt water, or other accident, then manie tymes the Vintener is driven to his hard shiftes, and then hee helpeth himselfe with Allome, with Turnsole [tournisol, or litmus], Starch, and with manie other Drugges, and aromaticall ware which he fetcheth from the Apothecarie, the particulars whereof I coulde set downe and applie even as they have beene a long time (till within these fewe yeeres) practized in one of the most authentique Tavernes of my time. But my purpose is onely to put some in minde of their grosse night-woorkes which discover themselves by Candlelight at their Celler Windowes, whishing them to leave all unwholesome practizes for mans bodie, least they should heereafter against my will force mee to publish them to the worlde, I shoulde drawe my Countrey men into such a liking of our Royston Grape, that in the ende they woulde for the most part content themselves with their English and naturall drinke, without raunging so farre for forreine Wines.
The Jewell House of Art and Nature, conteining diverse rare and profitable Inventions, together with sundry new experimentes in the Art of Husbandry, Distillation, and Moulding. By Hugh Platte. London: Peter Short, 1597. Access through Early English Books Online.
Of bread and drink.
The second Section, concerning foode. Chap. 1. Of bread and drink.
VVhat is the vse of bread?
BRead made of pure wheat floure, well boulted fro~ all bran, sufficiently leauened, and finely moulded & baked, comforteth and strengtheneth the hart, maketh a man fat, and preserueth health. It must not be aboue two or three dayes old, at most, for then it waxeth hard to be co~cocted. Howbeit neuerthelesse, the pith of new hot bread infused into wine, and smelt vnto, doth much good to the spirits, and greatly exhilarateth the heart.
What is the vse of beere?
Beere which is made of good malt, well brew|ed, not too new, nor too stale, nourisheth the body, auseth a good colour, and quickly pas|seth out of the body. In summer it auayleth a man much, and is no lesse wholesome to our constitutions then wine. Besides the nutritiue faculty, which it hath by the malt, it receiueth likewise a certaine propertie of medicine by the hop.
What is the vse of Ale?
Ale made of barley malt and good water doth make a man strong: but now a daies few brewers do brew it as they ought, for they add slimie and heauie baggage vnto it, thinking thereby to please tossepots, & to encrease the vigour of it.
How shall I discerne good ale from bad?
Good ale ought to be fresh and cleere of colour. It must not be tilted, for then the best qualitie is spent: It must neyther looke mud|die, nor yet carie a taile with it.
Which is the best drink?
The most pretious and wholesome ordina|rie drink as well for them that be in health, as for sicke and impotent persons is made after this maner: Take halfe a pound of barley, foure mea|sures of water, halfe an ounce of Licoras, and two drachmes of the seede of Violets, two drachmes of parsley seed, three ounces of red Roses, an ounce & a halfe of Hysop & Sage, three ounces of figges and raisins well pickt: Seeth them all together in an earthen vessell, so long till they decrease two fingers breadth by seething: then put the pot in cold water, and straine the ingredients through a cloth.
Shew mee a speedie drink for trauellers, when they want beere or ale at their Inne?
Let them take a quart of fayre water, and put thereto fiue or sixe spoonefulles of good Aqua composita, a small quantitie of sugar, and a branch of Rosemarie: Let them be bru|ed well out of one pot into another, and then their drink is ready.
What shall poore men drink, when malt is ex|treame deare?
They must gather the toppes of heath, whereof the vsuall brushes are made, and dry them, and keepe them from moulding. Then they may at all times brue a cheap drink for themselues therewith. Which kinde of drink is very wholesome as well for the liuer, as the spleene; but much the more pleasaunt, if they put a little licoras vnto it. There is ano|ther sort of drink, of water and vineger pro|portionably mingled together, which in sum|mer they may vse.
How shall I help beere or ale, which beginne to be sowre or dead?
Put a handfull or two of oatemeale, or else of ground malt, into the barrell of beere or ale, stirre the same well together, and so make it reuiue a-fresh. Or else, if you please, bury your drink vnder ground, in the earth, for the space of foure and twentie houres.
Teach mee a way to make beere or ale to be|come stale, within two or three daies?
This is performed, if you burie your beere or ale being filled into pots, in a shadie place somewhat deepe in the ground.
What is meath?
Meath is made of honey and water boyled both together. This kinde of drink is good for them, which enioy their health; but very hurt|full for them, who are afflicted with the stran|gurie or colick. Braggot doth farre surpasse it in wholesomenesse.
What is Meatheglin?
Meatheglin is made of honey, water, and hearbes. If it be stale, it is passing good.
Chap. 2. Of Wine.
What is the propertie of wine?
Wine moderatly drunk refresheth the heart and the spirits, tempereth the humours, in|gendreth good bloud, breaketh fleagme, con|serueth nature, and maketh it merie.
What is the vse of white wine?
White wine, drunk in the morning fasting, cleanseth the lunges. Being taken with red O|nions brused, it pearceth quickly into the blad der, and breaketh the stone. But if this kinde of wine be drunk with a ful stomack it doth more hurt then good, and causeth the meate to des|cend, before it be fully concocted.
What is the vse of Rhenish wine?
Rhenish wine of all other is the most excel|lent, for it scoureth the reines of the back, cla|rifieth the spirits, prouoketh vrine, and driueth away the headache, specially if it doth pro|ceede from the heate of the stomack.
What is the vse of Muscadell, Malmesie, and browne Bastard?
These kindes of wines are only for maried folkes, because they strengthen the back.
What is the vse of Sack?
Sack doth make men fat and foggie, and therefore not to be taken of young men. Be|ing drunk before meales it prouoketh ap|petite, and comforteth the spirits maruel|lously.
How shall I know whether hony or water be mingled with wine?
Vintners, I confesse, in these dayes are wont to iuggle and sophistically to abuse wines, namely, Alligant, Muscadell, and browne Bastard, but you shall perceiue theyr deceite by this meanes; take a few drops of the wine, and powre them vpon a hot plate of yron, and the wine being resol|ued, the honey will remaine and thicken. If you suspect your wine to be mingled with wa|ter, you shall discerne the same by putting a peare into it: for if the peare swimme vpon the face of the wine, and sinke not to the bot|tome, then it is perfect and vnmingled, but if it sinke to the bottome, water without doubt is added vnto it.
Shew mee a way to keepe Claret wine, or any other wine good, nine or ten yeeres.
At euery vintage, draw almost the fourth part, out of the hogshead, and then rowle it vpon his lee, & after fill it vp with the best new wine of the same kinde, that you can get. Your caske ought to be bound with yron hoopes, and kept alwaies full.
How might I help wine, that reboyleth?
Put a peece of cheese into the vessell, and presently a wonderfull effect will follow.
From Naturall and artificial directions for health deriued from the best philosophers, as well moderne, as auncient. By William Vaughan, Master of Artes, and student in the ciuill law. By William Vaughan, 1600. Copy from the British Library, via EEBO.
VVhat is the vse of bread?
BRead made of pure wheat floure, well boulted fro~ all bran, sufficiently leauened, and finely moulded & baked, comforteth and strengtheneth the hart, maketh a man fat, and preserueth health. It must not be aboue two or three dayes old, at most, for then it waxeth hard to be co~cocted. Howbeit neuerthelesse, the pith of new hot bread infused into wine, and smelt vnto, doth much good to the spirits, and greatly exhilarateth the heart.
What is the vse of beere?
Beere which is made of good malt, well brew|ed, not too new, nor too stale, nourisheth the body, auseth a good colour, and quickly pas|seth out of the body. In summer it auayleth a man much, and is no lesse wholesome to our constitutions then wine. Besides the nutritiue faculty, which it hath by the malt, it receiueth likewise a certaine propertie of medicine by the hop.
What is the vse of Ale?
Ale made of barley malt and good water doth make a man strong: but now a daies few brewers do brew it as they ought, for they add slimie and heauie baggage vnto it, thinking thereby to please tossepots, & to encrease the vigour of it.
How shall I discerne good ale from bad?
Good ale ought to be fresh and cleere of colour. It must not be tilted, for then the best qualitie is spent: It must neyther looke mud|die, nor yet carie a taile with it.
Which is the best drink?
The most pretious and wholesome ordina|rie drink as well for them that be in health, as for sicke and impotent persons is made after this maner: Take halfe a pound of barley, foure mea|sures of water, halfe an ounce of Licoras, and two drachmes of the seede of Violets, two drachmes of parsley seed, three ounces of red Roses, an ounce & a halfe of Hysop & Sage, three ounces of figges and raisins well pickt: Seeth them all together in an earthen vessell, so long till they decrease two fingers breadth by seething: then put the pot in cold water, and straine the ingredients through a cloth.
Shew mee a speedie drink for trauellers, when they want beere or ale at their Inne?
Let them take a quart of fayre water, and put thereto fiue or sixe spoonefulles of good Aqua composita, a small quantitie of sugar, and a branch of Rosemarie: Let them be bru|ed well out of one pot into another, and then their drink is ready.
What shall poore men drink, when malt is ex|treame deare?
They must gather the toppes of heath, whereof the vsuall brushes are made, and dry them, and keepe them from moulding. Then they may at all times brue a cheap drink for themselues therewith. Which kinde of drink is very wholesome as well for the liuer, as the spleene; but much the more pleasaunt, if they put a little licoras vnto it. There is ano|ther sort of drink, of water and vineger pro|portionably mingled together, which in sum|mer they may vse.
How shall I help beere or ale, which beginne to be sowre or dead?
Put a handfull or two of oatemeale, or else of ground malt, into the barrell of beere or ale, stirre the same well together, and so make it reuiue a-fresh. Or else, if you please, bury your drink vnder ground, in the earth, for the space of foure and twentie houres.
Teach mee a way to make beere or ale to be|come stale, within two or three daies?
This is performed, if you burie your beere or ale being filled into pots, in a shadie place somewhat deepe in the ground.
What is meath?
Meath is made of honey and water boyled both together. This kinde of drink is good for them, which enioy their health; but very hurt|full for them, who are afflicted with the stran|gurie or colick. Braggot doth farre surpasse it in wholesomenesse.
What is Meatheglin?
Meatheglin is made of honey, water, and hearbes. If it be stale, it is passing good.
Chap. 2. Of Wine.
What is the propertie of wine?
Wine moderatly drunk refresheth the heart and the spirits, tempereth the humours, in|gendreth good bloud, breaketh fleagme, con|serueth nature, and maketh it merie.
What is the vse of white wine?
White wine, drunk in the morning fasting, cleanseth the lunges. Being taken with red O|nions brused, it pearceth quickly into the blad der, and breaketh the stone. But if this kinde of wine be drunk with a ful stomack it doth more hurt then good, and causeth the meate to des|cend, before it be fully concocted.
What is the vse of Rhenish wine?
Rhenish wine of all other is the most excel|lent, for it scoureth the reines of the back, cla|rifieth the spirits, prouoketh vrine, and driueth away the headache, specially if it doth pro|ceede from the heate of the stomack.
What is the vse of Muscadell, Malmesie, and browne Bastard?
These kindes of wines are only for maried folkes, because they strengthen the back.
What is the vse of Sack?
Sack doth make men fat and foggie, and therefore not to be taken of young men. Be|ing drunk before meales it prouoketh ap|petite, and comforteth the spirits maruel|lously.
How shall I know whether hony or water be mingled with wine?
Vintners, I confesse, in these dayes are wont to iuggle and sophistically to abuse wines, namely, Alligant, Muscadell, and browne Bastard, but you shall perceiue theyr deceite by this meanes; take a few drops of the wine, and powre them vpon a hot plate of yron, and the wine being resol|ued, the honey will remaine and thicken. If you suspect your wine to be mingled with wa|ter, you shall discerne the same by putting a peare into it: for if the peare swimme vpon the face of the wine, and sinke not to the bot|tome, then it is perfect and vnmingled, but if it sinke to the bottome, water without doubt is added vnto it.
Shew mee a way to keepe Claret wine, or any other wine good, nine or ten yeeres.
At euery vintage, draw almost the fourth part, out of the hogshead, and then rowle it vpon his lee, & after fill it vp with the best new wine of the same kinde, that you can get. Your caske ought to be bound with yron hoopes, and kept alwaies full.
How might I help wine, that reboyleth?
Put a peece of cheese into the vessell, and presently a wonderfull effect will follow.
From Naturall and artificial directions for health deriued from the best philosophers, as well moderne, as auncient. By William Vaughan, Master of Artes, and student in the ciuill law. By William Vaughan, 1600. Copy from the British Library, via EEBO.
Sunday, December 18, 2016
How to dye wood, bone, and horn
20. How to dye wood, bone, and horn
Any wood, bone, or horn you wish to dye has to be immersed for one half day in alum-water and then be dried again; then dye as follows:
21. To dye a green color
Two parts verdigris, one third part sal ammoniac are well ground together; put this in strong vinegar; immerse the wood, bone, or horn in this vinegar; cover tightly and leave it in until it becomes sufficiently green.
Comment from Edelstein: "An acid solution of copper would give excellent dyeing and a good green color."
22. Another green
Place the wood, bone, or horn in a glass jar; pour thereon vinegar mixed with "Viride Grecum" [verdigris] SO that it is thick and not too thin from vinegar; cover well and place it for seven days under warm horse manure; if it should not be green enough let it stay therein some time longer.
23. Another one
Also you may make the same way as reported above verdigris and vinegar; immerse wood, bone, or horn; let it stay therein the same time, take it out, and put it under warm horse manure, which has to be quite moist.
Comment from Edelstein: "This is another slight modification of the use of an acetic acid solution of copper to dye or stain the alum-mordanted wood, bone, or horn. Actually, this solution could be used for staining without having the material previously treated with alum."
24. To dye red
If you wish to dye wood, bone, or horn red, take some unslaked lime, pour some rain water on the lime, let stand overnight; then strain the clear portion through a piece of cloth, take for one "mass" of the water one loth grated brasilwood; immerse the wood, bone, or horn therein and bring to the boil, but take care to have it first soaked in alum-water.
25. To dye yellow
Take the bark of an apple tree, scrape off the outer rough skin, keep the middle layer, and cut it into small pieces; pour water on these, immerse the wood, bone, or horn in it; add some alum and let all boil well together.
Comment from Edelstein: "The bark of apple trees has long been known by country people as a source of yellow or brown dye for many things. The solution would undoubtedly give
a dull yellow color."
26. To dye black
Boil ground gallnuts in strong vinegar; immerse the wood, bone, or horn and let it boil well; take it out and put it in the white of an egg; add also the juice of the outer shells of walnut and let boil again.
Comment from Edelstein: "Missing here are added iron salts, which would give the best blacks. The juice of walnut shells usually furnishes a blackish brown; but if the alum to mordant the material contained some iron as an impurity (and this was usual), then the formula would give a good black."
27. To make horn soft
Take the urine of a man which has stood covered for four weeks, and one pound of unslaked lime and half the amount of willow ashes or ashes of wine lees, eight loth tartar and the same amount of salt; mix well together and bring to the boil; pour it into a filter bag and let it run twice through; keep this lye well covered. When you want to make horn soft, immerse the horn material therein for eight days, then it will become soft; or take stems from poppies together with their top parts, burn to ashes and make a lye of this, and let the horn boil therein.
28. To soften horn so much that it can be worked into forms
Take one pound of the ashes used in making glass; one pound unslaked lime, one "mass" water, allow to boil together until two thirds are evaporated, then stick a feather in and squeeze it between two fingers; if the hairs come off, the boiling has been enough, otherwise let boil longer; let it clarify and pour off, put in small chips of horn and let soften for two days, smear oil on your hands and the horn to make a paste and press it into what you wish.
29. Another recipe of the same kind
Juice of the herb called in Latin marubium album, and juice of celery, also juice from milfoil, also radish juice, and celandine juice, also strong vinegar; and immerse the horn in this and put it covered well under warm horse manure for seven days, then work it as above.
30. To pour horn in molds like lead
Take willow ashes and unslaked lime, make a strong lye therefrom and immerse in this lye chips of horn; let it boil well together so it becomes a paste. Whatever color you want to have it, grind the color and mix in and cast it as desired.
Many of these recipes were from translated middle German to middle English in the Secretes of the Revered Master Alexis of Piemont (see previous post).
From the Allerley Matkel (1532) by Sidney Edelstein, Technology and Culture, Vol 5 no 3 (Summer 1964), pp. 297-321 - includes the original facsimile text with a translation and discussion.
Any wood, bone, or horn you wish to dye has to be immersed for one half day in alum-water and then be dried again; then dye as follows:
21. To dye a green color
Two parts verdigris, one third part sal ammoniac are well ground together; put this in strong vinegar; immerse the wood, bone, or horn in this vinegar; cover tightly and leave it in until it becomes sufficiently green.
Comment from Edelstein: "An acid solution of copper would give excellent dyeing and a good green color."
22. Another green
Place the wood, bone, or horn in a glass jar; pour thereon vinegar mixed with "Viride Grecum" [verdigris] SO that it is thick and not too thin from vinegar; cover well and place it for seven days under warm horse manure; if it should not be green enough let it stay therein some time longer.
23. Another one
Also you may make the same way as reported above verdigris and vinegar; immerse wood, bone, or horn; let it stay therein the same time, take it out, and put it under warm horse manure, which has to be quite moist.
Comment from Edelstein: "This is another slight modification of the use of an acetic acid solution of copper to dye or stain the alum-mordanted wood, bone, or horn. Actually, this solution could be used for staining without having the material previously treated with alum."
24. To dye red
If you wish to dye wood, bone, or horn red, take some unslaked lime, pour some rain water on the lime, let stand overnight; then strain the clear portion through a piece of cloth, take for one "mass" of the water one loth grated brasilwood; immerse the wood, bone, or horn therein and bring to the boil, but take care to have it first soaked in alum-water.
25. To dye yellow
Take the bark of an apple tree, scrape off the outer rough skin, keep the middle layer, and cut it into small pieces; pour water on these, immerse the wood, bone, or horn in it; add some alum and let all boil well together.
Comment from Edelstein: "The bark of apple trees has long been known by country people as a source of yellow or brown dye for many things. The solution would undoubtedly give
a dull yellow color."
26. To dye black
Boil ground gallnuts in strong vinegar; immerse the wood, bone, or horn and let it boil well; take it out and put it in the white of an egg; add also the juice of the outer shells of walnut and let boil again.
Comment from Edelstein: "Missing here are added iron salts, which would give the best blacks. The juice of walnut shells usually furnishes a blackish brown; but if the alum to mordant the material contained some iron as an impurity (and this was usual), then the formula would give a good black."
27. To make horn soft
Take the urine of a man which has stood covered for four weeks, and one pound of unslaked lime and half the amount of willow ashes or ashes of wine lees, eight loth tartar and the same amount of salt; mix well together and bring to the boil; pour it into a filter bag and let it run twice through; keep this lye well covered. When you want to make horn soft, immerse the horn material therein for eight days, then it will become soft; or take stems from poppies together with their top parts, burn to ashes and make a lye of this, and let the horn boil therein.
28. To soften horn so much that it can be worked into forms
Take one pound of the ashes used in making glass; one pound unslaked lime, one "mass" water, allow to boil together until two thirds are evaporated, then stick a feather in and squeeze it between two fingers; if the hairs come off, the boiling has been enough, otherwise let boil longer; let it clarify and pour off, put in small chips of horn and let soften for two days, smear oil on your hands and the horn to make a paste and press it into what you wish.
29. Another recipe of the same kind
Juice of the herb called in Latin marubium album, and juice of celery, also juice from milfoil, also radish juice, and celandine juice, also strong vinegar; and immerse the horn in this and put it covered well under warm horse manure for seven days, then work it as above.
30. To pour horn in molds like lead
Take willow ashes and unslaked lime, make a strong lye therefrom and immerse in this lye chips of horn; let it boil well together so it becomes a paste. Whatever color you want to have it, grind the color and mix in and cast it as desired.
Many of these recipes were from translated middle German to middle English in the Secretes of the Revered Master Alexis of Piemont (see previous post).
From the Allerley Matkel (1532) by Sidney Edelstein, Technology and Culture, Vol 5 no 3 (Summer 1964), pp. 297-321 - includes the original facsimile text with a translation and discussion.
Friday, December 16, 2016
Le Ménagier de Paris
299. Bochet.
To make 6 septiers of bochet, take 6 quarts of fine, mild honey and put it in a cauldron on the fire to boil. Keep stirring until it stops swelling and it has bubbles like small blisters that burst, giving off a little blackish steam. Then add 7 septiersof water and boil until it all reduces to six septiers, stirring constantly. Put it in a tub to cool to lukewarm, and strain through a cloth. Decant into a keg and add one pint of brewer's yeast, for that is what makes it piquant - although if you use bread leaven, the flavor is just as good, but the color will be paler. Cover well and warmly so that it ferments. And for an even better version, add an ounce of ginger, long pepper, grains of paradise, and cloves in equal amounts, except for the cloves of which there should be less; put them in a linen bag and toss into the keg. Two or three days later, when the bochet smells spicy and is tangy enough, remove the spice sachet, wring it out, and put it in another barrel you have underway. Thus you can reuse these spices up to 3 or 4 times.
Item, another bochet which keeps for 4 years, and you can make a whole queue [barrel or cask, also a unit of measure] or more or less at one time if you wish. Combine three parts water and a 4th part honey, boil and skim until reduced by a 10th, and then pour into a container. Refill the cauldron and do the same again, until you have the amount you want. Let it cool and then fill a queue. The bochet will then give off something like a must that will ferment. Keep the container full so that it keeps fermenting. After six weeks or seven months [?], you must draw out all the bochet, up to the lees, and put it in a vat or other vessel. Then break apart the first container and remove the lees. Scald it, wash it, reassemble it, and fill with the liquid you set aside, and store it. It does not matter if it is tapped. Crush four and a half ounces of clove and one grain of paradise, put in a linen bag, and hang inside the keg by a cord from the bung.
Nota For each pot of foam skimmed off, add twelve pots of water and boil together: this will make a nice bochet for the household staff. Item, using other honey rather than the skim, make it the same proportions.
317. Hippocras. To make hippocras powder, pound together a quartern of very fine cinnamon, selected by tasting it, half a quartern of choice cassia buds, an ounce of hand-picked, fine white Mecca ginger, and ounce of grains of paradise, and a sixth of an ounce of nutmeg and galingale together. When you want to make hippocras, take a generous half ounce of this powder and two quarterns of sugar, and mix them together with a quarte of wine as measured in Paris [circa one half gallon]. and nota that the powder and the sugar mixed together make "duke's powder".
To make a quarte or quartern of hippocras by measure used in Beziers, Carcassonne, or Montpelier, pulverize 5 drams of choice cinnamon, hand selected and cleaned; 3 drams of white ginger, culled and prepared; one half and a fourth drams all together of clove, grains of paradise, mace, galingale, nutmeg, and nard - more of the first, and of the other less and less of each as you go down the list. Add to this powder a pound and a half a quartern, by the heavier measure, of rock sugar, ground and mixed with the above spices. Put some wine and the sugar to melt on a dish on the fire, add the powder, mix, then put through a straining cloth and strain as many times as needed until it comes out clear and red. Nota that the tastes of sugar and cinnamon should dominate.
319. To make red white wine red at the table, in the summer gather red flowers that grow amidst grains, called perseau [red poppies] or neelle [corncockle] or passe rose [hollyhock], and let them dry enough so that they can be made into a powder. Toss it secretly into a glass of wine, and the wine will turn red.
337. To remove water from wine, put water and wine in a cupt, and plunge one end of a cotton thread into the bottom of the cup, the other end hanging out over the edge, below and outside of the cup, and you will see the water dripping, colorless, from this end. When the water has all dripped out, the red wine will begin to drip out. It seems that the same can be done with a barrel of wine.
338. To make fortified wine. Take from the vat or barrel the "mother drop" [completely clear without lees] or the flower of wine -red or white- as much as you want, and put it in an earthenware vessel, and boil it gently and moderately over a fire of very dry wood with a clear flame, without the smallest puff of smoke, and skim with a pierced wooden ladle, not an iron one. If the grapes are green that year, boil until the wine reduces to a third; and if the grapes are ripe, to a fourth. Next, set it to cool in a cask or other clean wooden vessel. When it is cooled, put it in a barrel; it will be better in the third or fourth year and in the first. Store it in a temperate place, neither hot nor cold. Set aside in a small vessel some of this boiled wine, to refill the cask in perpetuity, for you know that wine always likes to stay full.
359. To make vinegar to store, empty out the old cask of vinegar, then rinse it thoroughly with very good vinegar and not with water, hot or cold. Next, put that vinegar used for the rinsing and any lees into a wooden or clay vessel, not brass or iron. Let this vinegar and lees settle. Then pour off the clear liquid and strain, and put the solids back [the mother] in the barrel, and fill with more good vinegar. Let it sit in the sun and the heat, the top pierced in 6 places. At night and in fog, plug up all the holes, and when the sun returns, unplug as before.
From The Good Wife's Guide "Le Menagier de Paris", translated by Gina L. Greco & Christine M. Rose. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2009.
To make 6 septiers of bochet, take 6 quarts of fine, mild honey and put it in a cauldron on the fire to boil. Keep stirring until it stops swelling and it has bubbles like small blisters that burst, giving off a little blackish steam. Then add 7 septiersof water and boil until it all reduces to six septiers, stirring constantly. Put it in a tub to cool to lukewarm, and strain through a cloth. Decant into a keg and add one pint of brewer's yeast, for that is what makes it piquant - although if you use bread leaven, the flavor is just as good, but the color will be paler. Cover well and warmly so that it ferments. And for an even better version, add an ounce of ginger, long pepper, grains of paradise, and cloves in equal amounts, except for the cloves of which there should be less; put them in a linen bag and toss into the keg. Two or three days later, when the bochet smells spicy and is tangy enough, remove the spice sachet, wring it out, and put it in another barrel you have underway. Thus you can reuse these spices up to 3 or 4 times.
Item, another bochet which keeps for 4 years, and you can make a whole queue [barrel or cask, also a unit of measure] or more or less at one time if you wish. Combine three parts water and a 4th part honey, boil and skim until reduced by a 10th, and then pour into a container. Refill the cauldron and do the same again, until you have the amount you want. Let it cool and then fill a queue. The bochet will then give off something like a must that will ferment. Keep the container full so that it keeps fermenting. After six weeks or seven months [?], you must draw out all the bochet, up to the lees, and put it in a vat or other vessel. Then break apart the first container and remove the lees. Scald it, wash it, reassemble it, and fill with the liquid you set aside, and store it. It does not matter if it is tapped. Crush four and a half ounces of clove and one grain of paradise, put in a linen bag, and hang inside the keg by a cord from the bung.
Nota For each pot of foam skimmed off, add twelve pots of water and boil together: this will make a nice bochet for the household staff. Item, using other honey rather than the skim, make it the same proportions.
317. Hippocras. To make hippocras powder, pound together a quartern of very fine cinnamon, selected by tasting it, half a quartern of choice cassia buds, an ounce of hand-picked, fine white Mecca ginger, and ounce of grains of paradise, and a sixth of an ounce of nutmeg and galingale together. When you want to make hippocras, take a generous half ounce of this powder and two quarterns of sugar, and mix them together with a quarte of wine as measured in Paris [circa one half gallon]. and nota that the powder and the sugar mixed together make "duke's powder".
To make a quarte or quartern of hippocras by measure used in Beziers, Carcassonne, or Montpelier, pulverize 5 drams of choice cinnamon, hand selected and cleaned; 3 drams of white ginger, culled and prepared; one half and a fourth drams all together of clove, grains of paradise, mace, galingale, nutmeg, and nard - more of the first, and of the other less and less of each as you go down the list. Add to this powder a pound and a half a quartern, by the heavier measure, of rock sugar, ground and mixed with the above spices. Put some wine and the sugar to melt on a dish on the fire, add the powder, mix, then put through a straining cloth and strain as many times as needed until it comes out clear and red. Nota that the tastes of sugar and cinnamon should dominate.
319. To make red white wine red at the table, in the summer gather red flowers that grow amidst grains, called perseau [red poppies] or neelle [corncockle] or passe rose [hollyhock], and let them dry enough so that they can be made into a powder. Toss it secretly into a glass of wine, and the wine will turn red.
337. To remove water from wine, put water and wine in a cupt, and plunge one end of a cotton thread into the bottom of the cup, the other end hanging out over the edge, below and outside of the cup, and you will see the water dripping, colorless, from this end. When the water has all dripped out, the red wine will begin to drip out. It seems that the same can be done with a barrel of wine.
338. To make fortified wine. Take from the vat or barrel the "mother drop" [completely clear without lees] or the flower of wine -red or white- as much as you want, and put it in an earthenware vessel, and boil it gently and moderately over a fire of very dry wood with a clear flame, without the smallest puff of smoke, and skim with a pierced wooden ladle, not an iron one. If the grapes are green that year, boil until the wine reduces to a third; and if the grapes are ripe, to a fourth. Next, set it to cool in a cask or other clean wooden vessel. When it is cooled, put it in a barrel; it will be better in the third or fourth year and in the first. Store it in a temperate place, neither hot nor cold. Set aside in a small vessel some of this boiled wine, to refill the cask in perpetuity, for you know that wine always likes to stay full.
359. To make vinegar to store, empty out the old cask of vinegar, then rinse it thoroughly with very good vinegar and not with water, hot or cold. Next, put that vinegar used for the rinsing and any lees into a wooden or clay vessel, not brass or iron. Let this vinegar and lees settle. Then pour off the clear liquid and strain, and put the solids back [the mother] in the barrel, and fill with more good vinegar. Let it sit in the sun and the heat, the top pierced in 6 places. At night and in fog, plug up all the holes, and when the sun returns, unplug as before.
From The Good Wife's Guide "Le Menagier de Paris", translated by Gina L. Greco & Christine M. Rose. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2009.
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