Category: history

  • Did British Gin Come from Dutch Genever? Part 2

    Screenshot 2023-12-27 at 2.11.13 PMI watched a video by Philip Duff on the history of gin – is gin the British interpretation of Dutch genever? Or does it come from a more or less independent distilling tradition since British spirits were usually based on a neutral base distillate? 

    I watched a seminar by Jared Brown and Anistatia Miller that claims independence and wrote about that here.

    Phil Duff adds some new information about the historical use of botanics in genever and on Dutch distilling styles. 

    Duff cites a couple key pieces of information:

    • The most popular style of distillation in Holland was not distilling a beer mash with botanicals one single time [which leads some to the conclusion that gin, based on a neutral spirit base, was born independently of Holland] but 2 distillations then a third with botanicals, which is essentially how gin is made.
    • The Distiller of London contains a recipe that looks like gin but is more of an expensive medicinal liqueur, and a book published after it to "correct the mistakes" in it says differently 

    And thus he concludes basically that gin was invented in England after column distillation comes on boaord in the early 1800s, but it's a direct line of invention from Dutch distilling/genever. 

    Click the link above for Jared/Anistatia's first video, then watch Phil's video below. 

     

     

  • The Five Best Drink Books of 2023

    This year I read more than 40 books, mostly about drinks. My top five favorites are below. This list is not actually the best drink books of the year, but my favorites. (And my favorite technically came out in 2022.) I wrote the title for SEO!

    What I want out of drink books is new information or information presented in a new way. I don't need cocktail recipes so recipe books only really appeal to me when they present new techniques.

    And if I haven't chosen your book or your favorite here, just assume I haven't read it yet. You make great choices too!

     

    Camper's Favorite Books of 2023

    5. Ice: From Mixed Drinks to Skating Rinks–a Cool History of a Hot Commodity by Amy Brady [Amazon] [bookshop]

    Amy Brady's book about the cultural history of ice was a perfect pairing to my how-to book on ice cubes, coming out just a month after my own. This has the history of "Ice King" Frederic Tudor, plus how ice fundamentally changed America in numerous ways from food and drink to sports and travel. 

    Ice by amy brady

     

    4. How to Taste: A Guide to Discovering Flavor and Savoring Life by Mandy Naglich  [amazon] [bookshop]

    It's mostly about tasting beer, wine, and spirits but it's a book about tasting everything from cheese to chocolate to honey, and approaching it like a professional taster. There are tips of developing your palate and tons of interviews with professionals in many different specialties. It makes me want to host tasting parties for everything. 

    How to taste book

     

    3.  Tropical Standard: Cocktail Techniques & Reinvented Recipes by Ben Schaffer and Garret Richard [amazon] [bookshop]

    This is the only recipe book on my list, because it introduces new techniques to old drinks. Tropical Standard will probably be known as a book of tiki cocktail recipes made with modern techniques like clarification and isolated acids from Liquid Intelligence, but many of the drinks include no such razzle dazzle: It is really a book on raising the standard of tropical cocktails, optimizing them with everything we've learned in the decades since they were first invented. 

    Tropical standard

     

    2. A Field Guide to Tequila: What It Is, Where It’s From, and How to Taste It by Clayton J. Szczech [amazon] [bookshop]

    The title and cover copy really undersell it: This is the tequila book the world needs. About half the book is about the production of tequila and the historical circumstances and sometimes-ridiculous regulations that lead to it being made that way. Tequila is a moving target in many ways, but Szczech has done a great job at nailing the parameters that make it what it is, along with highlighting some of the largest and most traditional players in the category. This is now the first book I recommend about the category. 

    Field guide to tequila

     1. Modern Caribbean Rum by Matt Pietrek and Carrie Smith [buy]

    This came out at the end of 2022 but I read it – all 850 pages of it – this year. And it seems like it was written just for me. I am a production nerd and want to know all the ingredients, equipment, and regulations that go into making something and how those things impact how something tastes. Here we get the information on the specific stills- down to the manufacturer- used at every distillery, plus that level of detail about everything from every producer in the covered region. It's a lot, and I like it. So it is all of that wrapped up in a huge heavy package with terrific photos and design – a pleasure to flip through too. 

    Modern caribbean rum

     

    Super Bonus!

    The Ice Book: Cool Cubes, Clear Spheres, and Other Chill Cocktail Crafts by Camper English [amazon] [bookshop]

    Okay I lied again. Those weren't my top five favorite books of 2023. They're the top 5 books of 2023 that I didn't write. My favorite book of 2023 is The Ice Book, by me! 

    Learn to make very good ice and shape it into all sorts of amazing cubes, spheres, blinged-out diamonds, and more. I hope you'll pick up a copy if you haven't already. 

     

    The ice book by camper english
     

    Materials:

     

    Favorite drink books 2024

  • Black Caterers in Food and Cocktail History

    High on the hog coverIn a nice coincidence, right after reading Juke Joints, Jazz Clubs, and Juice that I reviewed here, [amazon][bookshop] my other book club chose High on the Hog [amazon] [bookshop] as their pick for the month.

    I just finished up the book (haven't seen the Netflix series yet but will watch next month- having only heard the title, I thought both were cookbooks/cooking shows instead of history book/show) and it's super interesting.

    One thing I noticed in Juke Joints was how often the author mentioned caterers and their recipes for food and drink. In reading lots of cocktail history I hadn't come across caterers that I can recall. So I made a mental note of it.

    In High on the Hog, the author explains a little better why caterers were often Black businesses- coming off of domestic work skills and training but lacking the capital to open restaurants.

    It was nice to have a question and then get it answered in the next book.

    Here are a couple of pages from High on the Hog in which I got my answers. It's worth reading High on the Hog in full though – it looks like the overlapping history of food and Black history in America.

    IMG_7815

    IMG_7816

  • Monks can’t make enough of this famous spirit. Can an alternative from S.F. replace it?

    For the San Francisco Chronicle, I wrote about the Chartreuse shortage and how some bartenders are looking locally to Brucato Chaparral as a stand-in. 

     

     

    Screenshot 2023-09-12 at 9.39.04 AM

     

  • Distillation in Ancient India? Not So Fast

    After reading my book Doctors and Distillers, Harold McGee (On Food and Cooking) pointed out to me that proof of distillation in ancient India (supposedly from the fifth century BCE) is not as well established as previously thought. Many histories on distillation cite work from 1979 that claims that elephant head stills were found along with other equipment that shows that there was alcoholic distillation in Northern India this early. 

    9780199375943McGee recommended that I look at the book  An Unholy Brew: Alcohol in Indian History and Religions by James McHugh. I added it as a suggestion that the SF Public Library should pick up, and thankfully they did. When it arrived recently, I took it out. 

    The book is dense and academic, and I decided that I wouldn't have time to read all of it. So instead I just searched for the sections on distillation. There were only a couple.

    McHugh writes, "… the evidence for early stills in South Asia is more questionable than is often assumed…. John Marshall's 'still' excavated at Taxila was not found as a connected assemblage; Marshall assembled it himself from quite disparate finds, no doubt on the model of contemporaneous stills, in order to explain the function of just one of the vessels. Allchin [the 1979 reference that's referred to in places such as the Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails] built on Marshall's hypothesis regarding the function of these vessels, and his textual evidence is not convincing. Allchin likewise did not find a still assemblage but rather a large number of one type of vessel, with very few other parts."

    "The earliest explicit description of alcoholic distillation that I am aware of is from a medical text… dating from around 1200 CE…. It is absolutely clear that distillation is described here and that the liquid distilled is a fermented, sugar-based drink…. An important point to note here is that, when Sanskrit texts mention alcoholic distillation, they are quite clear about it, using specific vocabulary." 

    Note that at the end of the 1100s is when we first find real evidence of alcoholic distillation in southern Italy as well. McHugh notes that the distilled spirit is distilled medicine, not beverage alcohol. This is in line with distillation in Europe at this time. 

    Later text references to alcoholic distillation pop up at the end of the 1200s in Indian texts, and now refer to recreational drinking.  Note: nonalcoholic distillation in the West dates to probably 300CE; Arabs were distilling rosewater after I believe the year 700, but as I wrote in Doctors and Distillers, it doesn't seem that even if/when they distilled wine, they concentrated the alcohol with heads/tails cuts, so it was closer to filtration.

    In a later chapter, McHugh mentions a book "The Elucidation of Distillates (Arkaprakasa), dating from the seventeenth century CE or later, is a treatise on distilled medicines." That might be a fun book for me to find if it has been translated into English sometime. 

    Anyway, I thought this was interesting. 

  • Vanity Fair: The Glaciers May Be Melting—But Status Ice Is Trending

    I was interviewed for this terrific story in Vanity Fair that brings together the modern manifestations of clear ice with its history as a luxury item that quickly transforms into an everyday necessity over and over again. I think the writer did a great job with it. 

    Read it here

    Vanity fair story

  • Women in Distilling, 1500s-1700s

    This is a quick post on some books I've read on women distilling in olden times. 

    Distillation of spirits came out of medical alchemy (which is to say medical proto-science), and early alchemy books included lots of recipes for distilled medicines with stuff like gold and silver included in them. Some of these alchemy books were written by and for women, such as the best known Secrets of Isabella Cortese.

    A very scholarly look from an alchemy/scientific practice perspective is found in Daughters of Alchemy: Women and Scientific Culture in Early Modern Italy. It mentions distilled medicines that often resemble pure alchemical preparations. 

     

    Daughters of alchemy

    Those women alchemists were noblewomen, who could afford the stills and other equipment and often a staff to operate them. But as we move into the 1600s and look at other noblewomen in Germany, we find the distilled medicines looking more like medicine (nonsensical as much of it was) rather than alchemy. 

    Noblewomen (as well as monks and nuns) in the Later Middle Ages/Early Modern Period made beneficial medicines to give as charity to surrounding villagers. Keep in mind that the nobles and monks were landowners, so keeping their tenants alive longer increased their own wealth. The book to read about this time period is Panaceia's Daughters: Noblewomen as Healers in Early Modern Germany.

    Panaceia’s daughters

    As  we move into the 1700s we find women authoring household books aka recipe books. These books always had a practical aspect to them for running a household (as opposed to books solely on distillation, all written by men, which were solely distilled herbal medicine recipes). The women's books would include information like food preservation techniques along with distilled medicines. 

    These books have fun names, like:

    • The Country Housewife and Lady's Director in the Management of a House, and the Delights and Profits of a Farm Containing Instructions for managing the Brew-House, and Malt-Liquors in the Cellar; the making of Wines of all sorts (1728)
    • The Ladies Directory in Choice Experiments and Curiosities of Preserving (1662)
    • The Accomlisht Ladys Delight (1684)
    • The Queene-Like Closet (1681)
    • The Compleat Housewife (1727) 

    There are some books about these recipe books, but looking more closely at distillation we find Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake. This book is a bit more accessible than the previous two. The author shows that in young America in the Chesapeake area people were more isolated and their technology and social structures closer to those of the previous century. So in the 1600s and 1700s we find more women distilling in the home (or rather, estate) and look at what they used distilled alcohol for and how they made or bought it. 

    Every home a distillery

     

    I touch on some of this in Doctors and Distillers, and if you want to go down this rabbit hole I'd recommend reading it first to put a lot of this stuff in context. 

    D&d cover medium

  • Aqua Vitae Opinions from a 1540 Book on Metallurgy

    De_la_pirotechnia_1540_Title_Page_AQ1_(1)I read about a reference to distillation in the Pirotechnia, so I decided to look up the book. 
     
    According to Wikipedia, "De la Pirotechnia is considered to be one of the first printed books on metallurgy to have been published in Europe. It was written in Italian and first published in Venice in 1540. The author was Vannoccio Biringuccio, a citizen of Siena, Italy, who died before it was published."
     
    I typed in the one page on which it seems to be mentioned: 
     
    To conclude at last these methods of distilling and extracting waters are varied according to the wishes that come to the minds of the workers.  But in my opinion the true way is to adapt the fires well, with which you can do whatever pleases you when you wish, without the necessity of so much coöperating equipment. For this reason it would perhaps be necessary that I tell you here of the shapes and kinds of the furnaces, but I have decided to tell you of them farther on and here, in order not to break the discourse on distillation, I will tell you in detail the methods that are used for making aqua vitae.
     
    Many call this water of life in order to exalt it it, but they also say that for him who does not know how to make it, it should be called water of death. This is that substance and that agent which the alchemists bring to such subtlety that they call it the Quintessence and they credit it with so many virtues and powers [128] that the heavens could scarcely perform more. It is indeed true that he who considers it well will see great and laudable effects. In addition to some experiences, I remember having seen a treatise on this in which an experimenter had noted more than two hundred experimental effects. But if it is true, as the alchemists say, that this power alone makes metals grow and revives half-dead bodies, all the other things that they say of it must also be believed. It is certainly evident that it is one of the things that are very preservative against  putrefaction and is beneficial to many cold and moist sicknesses. The quality of this is subtle, fiery, and penetrating and these subtle, fiery, and penetrating and these subtle investigators believe that it extracts the virtues from everything that is put into it and converts them into its own subtle and penetrating nature. In short, they say so many things about it that it would be too long a subject if I should now wish to related it to you. 
     
    This confirms a few things and I think adds some depth to some of the material from Doctors and Distillers
     
    • It was still hard to make well, despite first references to distilling wine dating to pre-1200. There is a quote found in A History of the World in 6 Glasses: "One chronicler recorded the death in 1405 of Richard MacRaghnaill, the son of an Irish chieftain, who died “after drinking water of life to excess; and it was water of death to Richard.”
    • Maybe the "water of death" stuff is about methanol? 
    • This text refers to "the quintessence" rather than individual quintessences, but then later "extracts the virtues from everything that is put into it and converts them into its own subtle and penetrating nature" To me this reads as shifting thought as to whether the water of life is all-powerful or just powerful. 
    • The author clearly thinks the superlatives ascribed to aqua vitae are overblown. 
     
    IMG_0978
  • The Cool New Ice Trend In London, 1873

    Screen Shot 2022-09-05 at 11.13.36 AMI was searching for some information on Wenham Lake Ice and stumbled across this article in The Food Journal, published in London in 1873. 

    Wenham is a lake in Massachusetts and its ice was famous and exported to London (I have some interesting info about that in Doctors and Distillers), but by the time this article was written, the Norwegians had renamed one of their lakes Wenham Lake in order to sell it by that name. Pretty sneaky!

    Information about that is in the story below, but mostly I'm intrigued by how ice is described as this new material and the writer describes possible uses for it. 

    I highlighted the fun stuff in bold. 

     

    The use of ice has gradually increased among our population in the last twenty years, at an ever-accelerating rate, although it is as yet by no means as necessary an article in our domestic economy as among our American cousins. Boston is said to consume double the quantity of ice that contents London; yet, wherever we go, "Iced" heads the advertisement of drinks in our places of refreshment, and refrigerators and various contrivances for the application of ice are advertised extensively. In such an unprecedentedly hot season as the present, the British public slowly but surely wakes up to the necessity of utilising the wintry cold products to balance the summer heat. Ice not long ago was accounted a luxury; it is not yet, but we hope soon will be, esteemed in the household, as well as in places of public entertainment, a necessity; economy advises it, health and taste demand it, but so long as we depended on the uncertain home supply, expense forbade it. The hardest English winter, moreover, though it might fill private ice-houses and the ice-wells of our dealers, would not yield ice of a reliable purity, or of a durable degree of congelation. The importation of Wenham Lake Ice from America was the first step in the process of bringing within reach of every one ice of a strength, if we may use the term, which would bear transit and keeping, and a purity which would allow a lump to be dropped in to cool, as sugar to sweeten, any beverage. Various attempts have been made to manufacture ice on a large scale; the use of steam-power has enabled enormous quantities to be produced by one process ; but the London market — and, by the northern ports, the various English markets—are now altogether supplied with ice from Norway. The amount is influenced by the severity or mildness of our winter, and varies from 30,000 to 50,000 tons; the ice from the rivers and ponds in the environs of London is by no means neglected, for it is gathered and stored, and, as rough ice, is preferred for all exterior purposes. The various trades— fishmongers, brewers, confectioners, butchers, and poulterers— prefer the English ice, if procurable, not only as cheaper, but because it yields more readily to the liquefying powers of the salt mixed with it (usually 3 lbs. of salt to 10 lbs. of ice), and thus cools or freezes more rapidly than the hard, smooth blocks of foreign ice; it has, as a leading ice merchant remarked, " more gravy in it.*' Thus the patriotic mind need not fear that the Norwegian ice, like the carpentry and firewood, will supersede our home production. It must be borne in mind that ice which is mixed with our food or drink must be pure, and all ice that looks clear is not necessarily pure; for our analysts tell us that, as clear sparkling water may hold in solution poisonous matter, so crystalline ice may, when dissolved, actually prove putrescent, and by smell betray the foulness of the water whence it came; or else it may contain unsuspected unwholesome mineral salts. The mountain tarns and lakes of Norway, fed by the melted snows, and uncontaminated by drainage, yield a pure wholesome ice, and the Norwegian bonders have found a new source of industry and profit in the ice harvest. The Oppegaard Lake, now re-christened the ** Wenham Lake," and the property of the company of that name, is but one of many which rival, though do not surpass it, in the undoubted purity of its waters. The process of ice-ploughing and storing need not be described. The ports of Drobak, Drammen and Christiania, Lauwig and Kragero, Wiburg and Brockstadt, are the chief emporia, where the huge crystalline blocks, weighing from 2 to 4 cwt., are stored, waiting for the opening of the navigation and the demands of heated London. By sailing ship and steamer, sometimes in advance of the demand, sometimes in answer to a hurried telegram, the supplies of solid coolness and refreshment come. The king of the ice trade is Mr. Stevenson, whose trade thirty years ago was but 300 tons annually, and now reaches 600 tons per week; next come Messrs. Leftwich, and Carlo Gatti, who deserve the praise of having brought ice within reach of even the humblest. We have visited the ice stores of Messrs. Stevenson ; the wells consist of enclosed brick chambers of 50 cubic feet, with double doors, in thick double brick walls, excluding all light-; each chamber contains 1,000 tons. A steam lift hoists the cartloads of ice to the top, and it is then shot down just as coals are loaded into a collier. The cold, dark atmosphere, with the sfeam rising from the icy floor, might suggest a dream of one of Dante's circles. Near the principal wells in Cambridge Street, Hackney Road, are others of an older construction, built underground, and of less capacity. Above the roof of the wells is a loft with open sides, for storing and drying sawdust, of which 200/. to 300/. worth is used annually in the packing of the ice sent out. The huge blocks come over in the vessel's hold without any packing, and are handled like blocks of marble. But many a one who has vexed his soul with trying to break a lump of ice will be surprised to learn that to split them into manageable pieces it is only required to take a sharp-pointed "ice-dibber" like a large brad-awl, and with this to stab the surface, making several slight holes in a line, when the block splits without any further trouble; to divide a small piece of the hardest ice, you need only take a bodkin and sharply prick it, and it will break up without flying into your face or your neighbour's lap—wit herein surpassing strength.

     

    The ice as imported can be sold at prices var}'ing from 30J. to 40X. per ton; but, of course, the waste and fluctuations in demand, and the difference in the rate of supply to large and small consumers do not allow it to reach the general public at that rate; but the supply is always equal to the demand; and the hardy Norseman, by the beneficent intervention of Messrs. Stevenson, Leftwich, Gatti, Kent, the Wenhan\ Lake Company, or Messrs. Duus and Brown, of Fenchurch Street, can furnish us all with this cheap luxury, whenever that happy time comes in which Londoners are as wise as the Americans in the use of ice. We have already enumerated the trades in which ice is used: the fishmongers and daitymen long monopolised it as a preservative; now the butchers and poulterers employ it extensively; the brewers use rough ice to cool their wort, or even throw the Norwegian blocks into the vats; bacon, too, is cured by its help. The public more directly appreciates the luxury of ices and iced drinks, and, in the household, the benefit of refrigerators ensuring cool water, solid instead of oleaginous butter, and joints kept long enough to be tender, without disappointing the mistress and destroying the equanimity of the master. We will not attempt to enlarge upon the different varieties of ice pudding, dessert ices, etc. Next to their richness and flavour, the great secret of their preparation lies in the care with which they are whipped or churned during congelation. Most machines for this purpose are constructed on the rotary principle. Kent's Paragon Freezer appears adapted to save labour, and the Imperial of the Wenham Company is also a good one for the purpose. Ash's Piston Freezer, as its name imports, is worked up and down, and an advantage is obtained of being able to ice wine, make, block ice, and freeze dessert ices in one operation: in all these either ice and salt is used, or else freezing powders. A very simple one can be made Sy mixing i lb. nitrate of ammonia, i lb. carbonate of soda, and pint of water; or a more intense freezing mixture, with 2 lbs. pounded ice and 3 lbs. crystallised chloride of calcium or salt of lime. It may not be amiss to remark that a quantity of ice after meals is injurious, by stopping the secretion of gastric juice, and interfering with the process of digestion. A gastronomic process may also be made against the somewhat senseless fashion of following up iced pudding with post-prandial dessert ices—^that is to say, if you relish your wine. The palate is demoralised. Far better to keep the ices for the drawing-room, for both the digestion of the dinner and the enjoyment of the wine will be improved by the postponement. We will not venture on praise or dispraise of the various ices of the numerous confectioners; we only wonder at the badness of some, and rejoice to see the custom of mixed, or *' Neapolitan," ices becoming general, the water ice, by the harmonious discord of quality and flavour, improving the cream. It is a cause of wonder why, in some confectioners' shops and in theatres, is, should be charged for ices neither so 'good nor so plentiful as Carlo Gatti, for instance, serves in that beautifully decorated caf6 near the Hungerford Pier.

     

    The mention of Mr. Gatti reminds us that the enjoyment of ices is now by no means a luxury confined to the possessor of 6d., for he was the first introducer of penny ices. He himself assured us that in 1851 he sold no less than 3,000,000; and now, though they are not as popular, partly owing to the carelessness of the vendors, there are two hundred shops in London where penny ices are procurable; but besides these we have seen little gamins, such as thrust iht Echo, Sun, and ** box o' lights" in the faces of passengers, standing round a street ice-stall, each with his glass of bi-coloured ice, licking it up, spoons being despised, with great enjoyment, and paying id. only for it. An itinerant vendor, whose stall was in Seven Dials, informed us that on a fairly hot day his average earnings were 71.; his ices, of one colour, were composed of eggs, milk, arrowroot and sugar, and he could sell 5J. worth for 12j. The ice necessary for freezing he bought for 2j. id, per cwt.—English ice. Whit-Monday, with its blazing heat, was a great day for him, for he sold halfpenny ices at Hampstead Heath to the amount of 3/. 15 j. ! At all events they were innocuous, which is more than we can say of all cheap popular refreshments.

     

    We hope it will not be deemed an impertinence to suggest to the reader that wine is very often spoiled by being iced instead of merely cooled. If the wine be bad, especially " sparkling," ice it well by all means, and drink it while effervescing, and you will not notice its quality so much, till afterwards. If good, let it be first cooled, not in ice, but water with some ice in it, so as to avoid excess of cold; for the colder the wine the less its flavour, and you can, if-you choose, sacrifice the flavour to the luxuty of a cool drink. Champagne frappi is a specialiii. The water is frozen, and the delighted but extravagant palate is rejoiced with the spirit and the liqueur. It is to bB remembered that it is needful to wrap a wet cloth round the bottle when removed from the cooler. As for iced cups and mixtures, their name is legion, as may be said of the many refrigerators of all sorts and sizes. Norway, not content with supplying ice, has recently sent over very cheap refrigerators, which certainly seem adapted for simple use, and are decidedly so for households of small incomes. The danger, so often incurred, of the various meats, fruits, etc., being contaminated by any ill-odour, or even by the closeness of the vessel, is admirably obviated by Kent's ventilating refrigerator. The same ingenious inventor has supplied our licensed victuallers with a bottle refrigerator, or ice wine bin, and has met the requirements of small families by a miniature contrivance which can stand on the sideboard, or even ensure a comforting coolness of drink for the sick patient. A very complete and elaborate affair is the '* Duplex '* of the Wenham Company, which can be used either for rough or block ice, and is furnished with a tank for iced water. We would not advise the possessors to use this water for their matutinal tub, however grateful the chill of the water may be. No one over twenty-five, or under, if wise, will subject himself to the injurious and depressing influence upon the system exercised by a really cold sponge bath. We can only briefly touch on the use of ice as a hygienic agent. Not only are iced drinks grateful to the fevered palate, but the sick craving for them may be safely gratified; and we must here mention a fact creditable to the charitable donor, that any sick person, at any hour of "day or night, is supplied with ice gratis at Mr. Gatti’s ice stores, on production of a medical certificate. Ice is the best remedy in coup de soleil, or any headache brought on by exposure to the sun, as its application produces constriction or contraction of the minute blood-vessels, which are relaxed by the heat. For hemorrhage and irritability of the stomach, ice is largely used as a remedial agent. We do not know whether its application is a remedy for sea sickness, but we are sure that the increased employment of it in our hospitals would be of great advantage, and we heartily commend the example of Mr. Gatti's benevolence in ice to our other ice importers.

     

    Screen Shot 2022-09-05 at 11.04.00 AM

     

  • The Virtues of Aqua Vitae, from a 1512 Book

    A very important early book on distillation is Hieronymous Braunschweig's The Virtuous Book of Distillation

    It is otherwise known as the Large Book on Distillation, and it was first published in 1512, after the Small Book in 1500. I believe it was first printed in German, then translated into Dutch, then translated into English I think in 1527 but I'm not positive. 

    You can read some about it in Doctors and Distillers

    The full title of the book is actually: The vertuose boke of distyllacyon of the waters of all maner of herbes with the fygures of the styllatoryes, fyrst made and compyled by the thyrte yeres study and labour of the moste co[n]nynge and famous mayster of phisyke, Master Iherom bruynswyke. And now newly translate[d] out of Duyche into Englysshe Nat only to the synguler helpe and profyte of the surgyens, phisycyens, and pothecaryes, but also of all maner of people, parfytely and in dewe tyme and ordre to lerne to dystyll all maner of herbes, to the profyte, cure, and remedy of all maner dysseases and infirmytees apparant and nat apparant. And ye shall vnderstande that the waters be better than the herbes, as Auicenna testefyeth in his fourthe conon saynge that all maner medicynes vsed with theyr substance, febleth and maketh aged, and weke. Cum gratia et preuilegio regali.

    And as you can tell, it can be a challenge to read in this old English style and spelling. 

    But in preparation for my Tales of the Cocktail seminar this year, I decided to "translate" from olde English spelling into modern spelling an important section: The Virtues of Aqua Vitae.

    The old English text is archived here. For the page scan of this page, it is here.

     

    The Virtues of Aqua Vitae

    The aqua vitae is commonly called the mistress of all medicines for it eases the diseases coming of cold. It gives also young courage in a peron and causes them ot have a good memory and remembrance. It purifies the five whites (?) of melancholy and all of the uncleans when it is drunk by reason and measure. That is to understand five or six drops in the morning fasting with a spoonfull of wine using the same in the manner afforsaid the evil humors cannot hurt the body for it will dry them out of the veins.

    It conforts the heart and cause a body to be merry. It heals all old and new sores on the head coming of cold when the head is anointed therewith and a little of the same water held in the mouth and drunk of the same.

    It causes a good color in a person when it is drunk and the head anointed therewith the space of 20 days. I heals alopecia or when it is drunk fasting with a little treacle it causes the hair well to grow and kills the lice and flees.

    It cures the Reuma (?) of the head when the temples and the forehead therewith are rubbed and a spoonful taken in the mouth. It cures Litargiam (lethargy?) and all ill humor of the head. It heals the rosome (rosacea?) in the face and all manner of pimples. It heals the fistula when it is put therein with the luce of Celandine (?).

    Cotton wet in the same and a little wrung out again and so put in the eyes at night going to bed and a little drunk thereof is good against all deafness. It eases the pain in the teeth when it is a long time held in the mouth. It cause a swell breath and heals the rotting teeth. It heals the canker in the mouth in the teeth, in the lyps, and in the tongue when it is long time held in the mouth. It causes the heavy tongue to become light and well speaking. It heals the short breath when it is drunk with what when (?) as the figs be sodden in and vanishes all flumes (?)

    It causes good digestion and appetite for to eat and takes away the bulking. It dries the winds out of the body and is good against the evil stomach. It eases faintness of the hart, the pain of the milte (?), the yellow jaudice, the dropsy the ill limbs, the gout in the hands and in the feet, the pain in the breasts when they are swollen, and heals all diseases in the bladder and breaks the stone.

    It withdraws venom that has been taken in meat or in drink with a little treacle is put thereto. It heals the flanks and all diseases coming of cold. It heals the burning of the body and of all members when it is rubbed therewith by the fire 8 days counting.
    It is good to be drunk against the sodein dede (sudden dead?). It heals all scabs of the body and all cold swelling anointed or washed therewith and also little therof drunk. It heals all shrunk sinews and causes them to become soft and right.

    It heals the tertian and quartan fevers when it is drunk an hour before, or the fevers become on a body. It heals the venomous bites and also of a mad dog when they be washed therewith. It heals also all stinking wounds when they be washed therewith.

     

    The virtues of aqua vitae