Hot Spiced Wine from The Clan Donald Saga
“I would give you to drink some spiced wine, of the juice of my pomegranate.”
~ Song of Solomon 8:2
Hot spiced wine was very popular in the Middle Ages, especially in winter. It was warming and thought to aid digestion. St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) an Italian Dominican friar, was one of the most influential medieval thinkers. Discussing whether sweets broke a religious fast, he said, “Though nutritious in themselves, sugared spices are nonetheless not eaten with the end in mind of nourishment, but rather for easing digestion. Accordingly, they do not break the fast any more than the taking of any other medicine.” So, the medievals were free to drink spiced wine while fasting.
Richard II’s cookbook, The Forme of Cury (1320) contains a recipe for spiced wine, then called Hippocras, the heated wine the king drank and likely offered to Donald of Islay, Lord of the Isles, when he dined with him.
Ingredients:
2 bottles of red wine
1 tablespoon of Poudre Forte (or use the separate spices in this blend listed below)
1 tablespoon cinnamon or 4 cinnamon sticks
1 tablespoon ground ginger or 3 inch piece fresh ginger sliced
6 peppercorns
½ teaspoon Grains of Paradise
1 teaspoon ground cloves or 8 whole cloves
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 apple, cored and sliced in rounds (can also use dried cherries). Today we might use oranges, but as a general rule, they didn’t have them at the time of my stories, except in Spain and other, warmer countries than Scotland.
Add the spices to the wine (you can use mesh bags if you like, or you can drop the spices in loose and strain later with a modern linen “hippocras bag”.
If you have the time, wait a day before heating to allow the spices to infuse the wine.
Then, add ½ cup honey (to taste), or sugar if you prefer, though a sweetener is optional, and bring the wine and honey to a simmer.
Cool a bit and serve while warm.
Notes:
Various medieval recipes call for more or less spices so you may want to vary the amounts according to your taste.
A linen bag named after Hippocrates, the ancient physician who advised the consumption of spiced wine drinks, was used in the era. It was a conical bag used by apothecaries known as a manicum hippocraticum, or "the sleeve of Hippocrates". Hippocrates of Kos (460-370 BC) believing in the importance of pure water for his patients is said to have invented this device as a water filter.
2 bottles of red wine
1 tablespoon of Poudre Forte (or use the separate spices in this blend listed below)
1 tablespoon cinnamon or 4 cinnamon sticks
1 tablespoon ground ginger or 3 inch piece fresh ginger sliced
6 peppercorns
½ teaspoon Grains of Paradise
1 teaspoon ground cloves or 8 whole cloves
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 apple, cored and sliced in rounds (can also use dried cherries). Today we might use oranges, but as a general rule, they didn’t have them at the time of my stories, except in Spain and other, warmer countries than Scotland.
Add the spices to the wine (you can use mesh bags if you like, or you can drop the spices in loose and strain later with a modern linen “hippocras bag”.
If you have the time, wait a day before heating to allow the spices to infuse the wine.
Then, add ½ cup honey (to taste), or sugar if you prefer, though a sweetener is optional, and bring the wine and honey to a simmer.
Cool a bit and serve while warm.
Notes:
Various medieval recipes call for more or less spices so you may want to vary the amounts according to your taste.
A linen bag named after Hippocrates, the ancient physician who advised the consumption of spiced wine drinks, was used in the era. It was a conical bag used by apothecaries known as a manicum hippocraticum, or "the sleeve of Hippocrates". Hippocrates of Kos (460-370 BC) believing in the importance of pure water for his patients is said to have invented this device as a water filter.
