Liqueurs, or cordials, as they are also known, are flavored
and often sweetened distilled alcoholic beverages. Although these
beverages are of more recent origin than that of the other
beverages which we have so far examined they are still well within
our proper period of study.
Among the earliest writings on the subject of flavored
alcohols are those of the Catalan Arnold de Vila Nova, an alchemist
in Spain and France who was born in 1240. He wrote, in The Boke of
Wine, of the distillation of wine into aqua vitae and the subsequent
flavoring of these spirits with various herbs and spices.123
He especially wrote of the restorative and life giving properties
of these waters. It was the firm belief of Raymond Lully, a
student of de Vila Nova's that so vital and life restoring were
these waters, their production was a divinely inspired gift from
Heaven.124
It was primarily among the alchemists of this early date,
however, that these waters became known. It remained for a later
period for these beverages to be much used as pleasurable drinks
and not as alchemical potions. By the fourteenth century, however,
the drinking of these liqueurs had become popular in Italy and
spread into France. This popularity is often attributed to
Catherine de Medici, who, along with her Court, brought the use of
these liqueurs with her to France from her native Tuscany.125
There is, however, some evidence of an earlier diffusion of liqueurs, or
an independent outgrowth of these drinks prior to their introduc-
tion by Catherine. There can be little doubt, however, that the
Court of Catherine certainly increased the popularity and accep-
tance of these potables among the nobility of France.
Between the fourteenth century and the early seventeenth
century considerable production of these liqueurs was from the
alchemists and the monastic orders.126
Benedictine, as the name indicates dates to the Benedictine monk Dom Bernardo Vincelli, in
the Abbey of Fecamp about the year 1510.127
The recipe for Chartreuse was originally an 'Elixir de longue Vie' (an elixir of long
life), given in 1605 to a Carthusian monastery near Paris by the Marechal d'Estrees, a
captain under Henri IV.128 Cusenier Mazarine,
a French Anise liqueur, dates to a 1637 recipe of the Abbaye de
Montbenoit.129 Recipes, too, for the herbal
liqueurs of Aiguebelle, Carmeline, La Senancole, and Trappastine were also originally
monastic elixirs (primarily Cistertian).130
It would be a mistake, however, to claim that the total production of liqueurs was limited
to these monasteries. By the middle to the end of the sixteenth
century several distilleries had been formed which were producing
commercial quantities of liqueurs. These included the Dutch
distillery of Bols, founded in 1575 and Der Lachs, a German
distillery which began producing Danzig Goldwasser in 1598. The
first of the liqueurs produced by Bols was an anisette liqueur on
which they began production shortly after the founding of the
distillery.131
The word 'liqueur' is derived from the Latin liquefacere which
means 'to melt, or disolve'.132
This refers to the methods of flavoring the brandy or whisky which forms
the base of the liqueur. There are several methods of obtaining the flavor
from the fruits and spices. They are maceration, distillation and
percolation.133
The final result of any of these methods, however, is that the
flavor of the spice or fruit is dissolved into the alcoholic base.
The choice of method used depends on the source from which the
flavor is being extracted and on the particular flavor desired from
the flavoring agent. Some flavoring agents will yield different
flavors, depending on the type of extraction used.
Maceration refers to the steeping of the aromatic/flavoring
agent which has usually been bruised in water or alcohol for a
period of time in order to extract an essence from it. This
essence, then, is added to the base as the flavoring agent.
Distillation refers to the distillation of the desired
flavoring agent which has already been mascerated. This is often
repeated many times with large amounts of the flavoring agent and
reduced to a relatively small amount of liquid. This produces a
very strong essence to be added to the bulk of the alcohol base.
In percolation either water or the alcoholic base is allowed
to drip though the flavoring agents or, it is heated and the steam
passed through the agent prior to recondensing.
It should be fairly obvious from the above descriptions of the
methods used, that some would be more suitable than others for
extracting the flavor from a particular source. A juicy fruit
could easily undergo maceration, providing a juice that could be
added to the base. It should be noted at this juncture, however,
that citrus liqueurs, which were common (oranges having worked
their way from the Orient to Spain by the ninth century), were not
made from the citrus juice, but from the oils and flavorings
extracted from the rind of the fruit,134
generally though percolation. Distillation or percolation are quite suited to extracting
the flavors from harder and drier sources, such as many spices, or
from skins of certain fruits.
Even when using the same general method, different flavors can
still be extracted from the same flavoring agent. With distilla-
tion or percolation as the method of extraction, a very different
flavor will be produced if the base liquid is water than will be
achieved if an alcoholic base is used.135
In many spices, a much more bitter and astringent flavor will ensue from the use of an
alcoholic base as opposed to one of water.136
Depending on tastes and the type of liqueur desired this may, or may not be desirable
and the choice of a base liquid should, therefore, be carefully
considered.
Once an aromatized base has been prepared by one of the above
methods, or by a combination of these methods (if several different
aromatic/flavor sources are used, different methods for the
extraction of these essences may well be a necessity) the remaining
steps in the production of the finished liqueur are set forth in
Hannum's book Brandies and Liqueurs of the World as follows:
* The mixing of the final blend of aromatized bases and
if necessary, ageing.
* The mixing of the aromatized base with the desired alcohol
and any desired sugar and/or water.
* A generally short period of ageing to rest the final product
and allow the marrying of the aromatics to the alcohol.
* Coloration.
* Cold stabilizing.
* Bottling.
Please note that for the purposes of our study within the Medieval
framework, coloration and cold stabilization are not applicable.
All coloration would generally have been provided, within our
period of study, by the aromatic and flavoring agents which were
used in the liqueur's preparation. Cold stabilization is a
technique too modern for our studies. The remainder of the steps
outlined above, however, are virtually unchanged from the time of
our study and comprise all of the steps required in producing
flavored and aromatic liqueurs.
Recipes for liqueurs and cordials are a strange and unusual
lot. Of those liqueurs whose names have come down to us through
the years, in many cases that is all that we know. Others are
simple herbal mixtures of only a single spice, such as anise.
Some, like Kummel are made up of only two herbs i.e. caraway and
cumin. We know that Hippocrates drank an anise flavored beverage
called anisum, and that the ancient Greeks used caraway and cumin
in their beverages.137
We can also find references to the use of these herbs in alcoholic
beverages in the Bible in the Book of Isaiah. Legend has it that
apricot pits were distilled four centuries ago to make
amaretto.138 We also have some
liqueurs which have survived to this day, but for the most part ignorant of what
the actual ingredients are unless we happen to be one of the four
people in the world which are trusted with the secret of the recipe
for Chartreuse. I am not one of those people and I don't know
anyone who is. I have neither seen, nor heard of any recipes which
claim to duplicate Chartreuse at all well. Recipes for Benedic-
tine-like liqueurs do exist, though they often contain bitter
almonds, or the oil of bitter almonds, which, contain cyanide and
are quite poisonous, and oil of wormwood, which can cause brain
damage and is also illegal in most civilized countries as well as
other ingredients now known to be quite poisonous. Almond extract
may be used in place of oil of bitter almonds and oil of horehound
or oil of hyssop for oil of wormwood.139
The following recipe would be a brandy, were it not for the
steeping of spices prior to the distillation, which tends to put it
into the category of a liqueur, which is why I have listed it here,
and not in the prior section.
Take equal parts of cloves, ginger, and
fowers of rosemary, infuse them in very good
wine the space of eight days: distil the
whole. This water comforteth the stomacke,
assuageth the pains and wringings of the
belly, killeth worms, and maketh fat folk to
becom leane, or maketh fat the leane, if they
drink it mixt with sugar.
The following four recipes were taken from Delights for
Ladies. The first is an extract from which cordials and liqueurs
could be made. The second and third recipes are liqueurs distilled
from various herbs and spices steeped in wine in a similar fashion
to the recipe from Maison Rustique above. The last recipe in this
section is a sweet cordial, made from the liqueur in the third
recipe, further infused with other spices and sweetened with sugar.
Please note that a 'white sugar candy', is called for. Yes, this
is yet another example of sugar specifically called for in a period
recipe.
Distill with a gentle heat either in balneo,
or ashes, the strong and sweet water, where-
with you have drawen oile of cloves, mace,
nutmegs, Iuniper, Rosemarie, &c. after it hath
stood one moneth close stopt, and so you shall
purchase a delicate Spirit of each of the said
aromaticall bodies.
Macerate Rosemarie, Sage, sweet Fennel seeds,
Marjerom, Lemmon or Orenge pils, &c. in spir-
its of wine a daie or two, and then distill it
over againe, unless you had rather have it in
his proper colour: for so you shall have it
upon the first infusion without any farther
distillation: and some young Alchymists doe
hold these for the true spirits of vegetables.
Take a gallo of Gascoign wine, of ginger,
galingale, cinamon, nutmegs & graines, Annis
seeds, Fennel seeds, and carroway seeds, of
each a dram; of Sage, mints, red Roses, thyme,
Pellitory, Rosemary, wild thyme, camomil,
lavender, of each a handfull, bray the spices
small, and bruise the herbs, letting them
macerate 12 houres, stirring it now & then,
then distill by a limbecke of pewter keeping
the first cleare water that cometh, by it
selfe, and so likewise the second. You shall
draw much about a pinte of the better fort
from everie gallon of wine.
Take of muske sixe graines, of Cinamon and
ginger of each one ounce, white sugar cany one
pound, powder the sugar, and bruse the spices
grossely, binde them up in a cleane linnen
cloth, and put them to infuse in a gallon of
Aqua composita in a glasse close stopped
twenty foure houres, shaking them togither
divers times, then put thereto of turnsole one
dram, suffer it to stand one houre, and then
shake altogether, then if the colour like you
after it is settled, poure the cleerest forth
into another glasse: but if you will have it
deeper coloured, suffer it to worke longer
upon the turnsole.
