Spices and fruit juices were often used to mask imperfections
and to provide variety in wine and other alcoholic beverages.
There were those who would even say that their addition was a
necessity. In 1576, George Gascoyne wrote the following in A
Delicate Diet, for daintie mouthed Droonkardes: "Yea, wine of it
selfe is not sufficient, but Suger, Limons, & sundry sortes of
spices, must be drowned therin."143
Many spices, herbs and different fruits have been mentioned in
the preceding pages. Keeping track of all of them could be
difficult. Below, therefore, are several lists and excerpts taken
from my sources, the first is taken from the appendices of
Delightes for Ladies and contains all of the herbs and spices
listed in that book for use in wines and distilled spirits. The
second list is culled from the Garden issue of the Complete
Anachronist, issue #25, and is a list of herbs used by the Medieval
brewers and vinters. The third list enumerates the fruits and
flowers for the making of wine which comes from the book Wines &
Beers of Old New England. While not European the time frame of
this book is still within our period of study since many of the
ideas and practices were brought with the settlers from across the
seas from their native Europe and earlier times. Following these
are two lists of my own compilation, being alphabetic listings of
the other three merged together. Lastly are two excerpts, one from
A Collection for the Improvement of Husbandry..., written by John
Houghton and later revised in 1727 in London by Richard Bradley,
and the second, being a list of spices and some of the drinks that
they were used in, comes from Gods, Men, and Wine by William
Younger.
From A Collection for the improvement of Husbandry...:
The things besides sugar and its compounds, now-a-days greatly
used for mixtures [with wine] are the juices of many fruits, as
gooseberries, currants, and what not: but those which make the bulk
are the juices of elder-berries and the great grape, anglic cyder,
and if these be the worst, I do not see any great evil attends it.
From Gods, Men, and Wine:
Spices used included: Ginger, cinnamon, grains of Paradise (a
type of pepper), saffron, nutmeg, clove carnations, fennel and
whatever else could be found or grown in the area.
These spiced wines could be mulled on cold winter nights, or
used as liqueurs or desert wines.
You will, no doubt, have noticed that there is a definate
overlap in all of the above lists and excerpts. It was intentional
that I not remove the duplicates so that you, the reader, can see
that these same fruits and spices were used in many places and even
in different areas within the general subject of the making and
usages of alcohol for the purpose of drinking.
You will note, also, that while some of the above named spices
and fruits may be unfamiliar to you, many are in common use today,
and quite probably already in your kitchen. If this is not the
case, it almost certainly should be, not just for brewing and
vinting, but also for use in cooking. I, myself fall into the
category of cooks who have a spice shelf just above the stove and
if something just happens to 'fall' from the shelf, well, in it
goes. I am a little more selective in the spices which go into my
wines and meads, having used only a handful for this purpose
(nowhere near the above lists), but having gotten these lists
together, I expect to be doing further experimentation with other
herbs and spices in my search for the perfect beverage. I may
never find this beverage, but I shall certainly have much fun in
the trying.
