Hypocras
Ingredients
Hypocras Ingredients
Red Wine
Cinnamon Sticks
Raw Sugar
Ginger Root
Whole Cloves
Peppercorns
Spiced Honey Nut Crunch Ingredients
Honey
Whole Walnuts
Lemon
Ground Ginger
Ground Black Pepper
Ground Cinnamon
Ground Cloves
Hypocras is a spiced wine drink named after Hippocrates(1). This drink was common in the thirteenth century(2) through the eighteenth century(3). Because it spanned so many centuries, the spices and methods used in making Hypocras vary a great deal. Some of the recipes call for blending the wine and spices over heat. Others let them blend through time. Some versions of Hypocras are meant to be served hot, others cold. I chose a recipe that gets its flavor from letting the spices soak in the wine at room temperature and which is served chilled.
The recipe I used is from 1594 and it is listed in The Good Huswifes Handmaide for the Kitchin by John Partridge. It was reprinted in A Sip Through Time(4). This recipe is below.
Take a gallon of wine, an ounce of Synamon, two ounces of Ginger, one pound of Sugar, twentie Cloves bruised, and twentie cornes of pepper big beaten, let all these soake together one night, and let it run through a bag, and it will be good Ipocras.
I took this recipe and created my own redaction. The wine I used was Bordeaux red wine. I chose this wine because I knew that Bordeaux wine was common in medieval and Renaissance times(5).
1 gallon red wine (Bordeaux)
1 ounce cinnamon sticks
2 ounces ginger root
1 pound raw sugar
20 whole cloves
20 peppercorns
Using a mortar and pestle, slightly grind the whole gloves so that they are bruised. Also in the mortar and pestle, crush the peppercorns. Coarsely chop the ginger root. Take the sugar and spices and add them to the gallon of red wine. Let them soak until the sugar has completely dissolved in the wine. The original recipe says that this will take a day but for me it took two full days for the sugar to dissolve. You will probably need to shake the gallon of wine and spices a couple of times a day to be sure it mixes in well.
After the sugar has dissolved, strain out the spices. I used a regular strainer to get out the big chunks of spices and then I used several layers of cheesecloth to strain out the smaller bits. Finally, I used coffee filters to get out the tiniest bits like the specks of peppercorn.
Store the Hypocras in the refrigerator to be sure that it won't ferment.
Hypocras is a drink that is served at the end of the meal as a digestive(6), typically along with candies, wafers, or preserves(7). Therefore, I have also included Spiced Honey Nut Crunch (also known as Nucato) as an appropriate accompaniment to the Hypocras. The Nucato is from a period recipe reprinted in The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy(8).
FOOTNOTES
1. Renfrow, Cindy. A Sip Through Time. United States of America. May 1997. p. 235.
2. Scully, D. Eleanor and Scully, Terence. Early French Cookery. The University of Michigan Press. 1995. p. 57.
3. Renfrow. p. 243.
4. Renfrow. p. 240.
5. Medieval Bordeaux, red red wine...oops white... Published at http://members.aol.com/vanishwood/guild/bordeaux.htm. p. 3-4.
6. Scully. p. 57.
7. Redon, Sabban, and Serventi. The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy. The University of Chicago Press. 1998. p. 220.
8. Redon. p. 217-218.
REFERENCES
A Sip Through Time, by Cindy Renfrow, Unites States of America, May 1997.
Early French Cookery, by D. Eleanor Scully and Terence Scully, United States of America, The University of Michigan Press, 1995.
Medieval Bordeaux, red red wine...oops white... Published at http://members.aol.com/vanishwood/guild/bordeaux.htm.
The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy, by Odile Redon, Francoise Sabban, and Silvano Serventi, Chicago, United States of America, University of Chicago Press, 1998.