While looking for fermented honey drinks, I came across a handful of delicious sounding syrups used to make soft drinks. Keep in mind that while early period syrups were mostly sweetened with honey and fruit sugar extracts, by the time refined sugar made its entrance it quickly took over its place in generic sweetening. I find when looking for recipes using honey, both for syrups and for sweetened wines like hippocras and claret, that the older texts tend to have more entries.
Enjoy!
109. Sweet, pleasant, good, delicious honey syrup.
Pure
water of the tamarisk seed is cooked until it is diminished by a
fourth. Then the best honey and crystalline sugar, of each one a part
equal to half of the water which had been cooked, is thrown on it. Its
froth is removed. In it is put a linen bag which contains one ratl each
of Cardamom, Chinese cinnamon, Walnut, and Ginger, and one daniq each of
honey and sugar. (This mixture) is boiled until a syrup remains. The
bag is squeezed, kneaded in it, and then taken out. The mixture is put
into flasks and the tops stoppered. It is drunk like oxymel [a vinegar honey drink].
Aqrabadhin (formulary) of al-Kindi by Abu Yusuf Ya'qub ibn Ishaq al-Kindi, c. 800-870 CE
The Medical Formulary, or Aqrabadhin, of Al-Kindi by Martin Levey, Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1966. http://web.raex.com/~obsidian/elixirs.html
Making Raison Drink
Take sweet raisins cleaned of twigs and dirt and wash them with water until they are clean. If you like it infused, throw in for each measure of raisons, two parts of hot water and put in a clay vessel until it infuses; then strain and mix in it honey. And if you like it cooked, place one measure of raisins with three of water and take the measure with a stick [to see the height in the pot]. Then add to the pot as much water as you wish. Cook it until it returns to the measuring mark [the water boils away]. Then strain it and mix in honey and leave it until it cools, and then drink it, God willing. And in the same manner honey is cooked for drinking.
Recipe for Honey-Water
Take a ratl [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of honey and add five ratls [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of water, cook until the water boils away and the honey remains, and clean off the foam little by little. Pound half an ûqiya [1 ûqiya=39g/7tsp] of pellitory and place it in a cloth [sack tied shut], put it in the kettle and bruise it [crush it] once and again until its substance comes out. Remove it [the sack] to an earthenware vessel, and take it from it [the honey] at the necessary time, for it makes up for all that which detracts from the notable quality [it cleans the honey].
A Syrup of [spiced] Honey
Take a quarter ûqiya [1 ûqiya=39g/7tsp] each of cinnamon, flower of cloves and ginger, mastic, nutmeg, Chinese cinnamon [cassia], Sindi laurel, Indian lavender, Roman spikenard, elder twigs, elder seeds, oil of nutmeg, bitter and sweet nuts, large and small cardamom, wild spikenard, galingale, aloe stems, saffron, and sedge. Pound all this coarsely, tie it in a cloth, and put it in the kettle with fifteen ratls [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of water and five of honey, cleaned of its foam. Cook all this until it is at the point of drinking [a syrup]. Drink an ûqiya [1 ûqiya=39g/7tsp] and a half, or up to two, with hot water. Its benefit is for weak livers; it fortifies the stomach and benefits dropsy [swelling from water, edema] among other ailments; it dissolves phlegm from all parts of the body and heats it a great deal, gives gaiety, lightens the body, and it was used by the ancients like wine for weariness.
Formula for Making a Syrup of Mastic [and Mint]
Take three ûqiyas [1 ûqiya=39g/7tsp] of mastic, powder it and put it in a bag, then take a ratl [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of mint and cook it, covered with water, until its substance comes out. Take the clean part of it [filter it] and mix it with three ratls [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of sugar and honey, and cook all this until it takes the form of a drink [syrup]. Drink two ûqiyas [1 ûqiya=39g/7tsp] of this with three of hot water. Its benefits: for the stomach and for digesting food; it cuts vomiting and binds the bowels, and fortifies the liver: it is the utmost in this.
Syrup of Mulberries: Way of Making It
Take the fruit of mulberries and extract from them the small seeds, after removing their cores, four ratls [1 ratl=468g/1lb]. Then divide fruit and clean the dirt from them, wash them very well in cold water until softened, and drain the water. Then take water out of a river oriented Eastward; heat [a] polished steel [pot] and cook in this the water until the water is reduced by half and changes color. Cook the harir [the cleaned fruit] in this water until its substance comes out; press it [filter it], and add to the water three ratls [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of honey, cleaned of its foam.
The [spice] bag: half an ûqiya [1 ûqiya=39g/7tsp] each of cinnamon and cloves, an ûqiya [1 ûqiya=39g/7tsp] of ginger, an ûqiya [1 ûqiya=39g/7tsp] each of cubebs, long pepper and galingale. Then pound roots and put them in a bag, which is then tied with a strong thread and added to the honey and the filtered essence. Put it on the fire and cook it until a syrup is made. Drink two ûqiyas [1 ûqiya=39g/7tsp] of this with three of hot water. It profits in the lack of urine, and increases desire well; it dissolves the fat from all parts of the body and heats it well, God willing, by its generosity and virtue.
Manner of Making a Syrup of Maryût
Take Maryût, lavender, and mashîsha, two handfuls of each, and two ûqiyas [1 ûqiya=39g/7tsp] each of fennel, anise, and peeled licorice roots. Cook all this in water to cover until its substance comes out. Then take the clean part of it [filter it] and add to two ratls [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of honey, and cook all this until it takes the form of a syrup. Drink an ûqiya [1 ûqiya=39g/7tsp] of this with three of hot water. Its benefit is in moist coughs; it cleans the throat, dissolves the phlegm from the stomach, and lightens the body gently.
Syrup of Flowers of Isfitân [possibly isfinar --white mustard]
Take half a ratl [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of flowers of isfitân, and cook them with five ratls [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of water until its substance comes out. Then take the clear part of it [filter it] and mix it with two ratls [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of honey. The [spice] bag: half an ûqiya [1 ûqiya=39g/7tsp] of cinnamon. Then cook all this [essence, honey, spice bag] until it takes the form of a syrup. Drink an ûqiya [1 ûqiya=39g/7tsp] with three of hot water. Its advantages are for melancholic fevers, and it is not used in other illnesses except at the beginning; and with this it provokes urine and menstruation [an anti-conception and abortive agent], and cleans the stomach of filth.
Syrup of Lavender [Halhâl]
Take a ratl [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of lavender and cook it in [enough] water to cover it until its substance comes out. Then take the clear part of it [filter it] and add it to a ratl [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of honey. Cook all this until it takes the form of a syrup. Drink an ûqiya [1 ûqiya=39g/7tsp] and a half of this with three of hot water. Its advantages are in cleaning the brain and the stomach; it lightens the body and dries up black bile gently, but it contracts the breath, and it is fitting to regulate the drink with a cheering drink or cheering water.
Syrup of Thistle
Take a ratl [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of thistle, ground coarsely, half a ratl [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of mashashtir, and an ûqiya [1 ûqiya=39g/7tsp] of bay leaves [this word can also mean myrtle or aloes], a handful of leaves from the interior of an orange tree, half an ûqiya [1 ûqiya=39g/7tsp] each of anise, seeds of wild carrot, and seeds of dodder, an ûqiya [1 ûqiya=39g/7tsp] each of bitter and sweet almonds. Pulverize all the roots and greens and cover them with three ratls [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of water in which black garbanzos have been steeped for a night and a day. Then put it in a new pot and cook until the water is reduced by half. Then cool it and clarify it [filter it] and take the clear part to add to a ratl [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of sugar and another of honey.
The [spice] bag: half an ûqiya [1 ûqiya=39g/7tsp] each of Indian spikenard, asârûn [wild spikenard], and flower of cloves, and cook all this until it takes the form of a syrup. Drink an ûqiya [1 ûqiya=39g/7tsp] and a half of it with three ûqiyas [1 ûqiya=39g/7tsp] of hot water, and above all, if it is drunk in the bath, it has a greater effect, if it please God the Most High, praise be to Him.
Syrup of Carrots
Take four ratls [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of carrots, after removing the fibers [lit. "nerves"] that are in the centers, and cook them in water to cover until their substance comes out. Then take the clear part of it [filter it] and add it to three ratls [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of honey, cleaned of its foam. The [spice] bag: then put an ûqiya [1 ûqiya=39g/7tsp] of cubebs, two ûqiyas [1 ûqiya=39g/7tsp] each of ginger and long pepper, and half an ûqiya [1 ûqiya=39g/7tsp] of cinnamon and flower of cloves. Cook until it takes the form of a syrup. Drink an ûqiya [1 ûqiya=39g/7tsp] of this with three of hot water: it is beneficial in the lack of urine, increases desire [aphrodisiac], and dissolves phlegm, heats the kidneys admirably, and likewise the other parts of the body, God willing.
Kitab al tabikh fi-l-Maghrib wa-l-Andalus fi `asr al-Muwahhidin, limu'allif majhul. 13th CE.
The Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook, or The Book of Cooking in Maghreb and Andalus in the era of Almohads, by an unknown author. Candida Martinelli, 2012
http://italophiles.com/andalusian_cookbook.pdf
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