Medieval Hypocras at Hattonch�tel

fx

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 13:17:17 GMT

Thanks for the link Cynthia!

Cynthia Wunsch

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 15:08:50 GMT

You can order all these spices (and many more) from www.penzeys.com

fx

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 14:17:18 GMT

Catherine, you can order most spices from the Internet and they are quite cheap nowadays.

Catherine

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 12:16:45 GMT

FX, that sounds delicious. I would make some for my next party if I had the slightest idea where to get some of these spices, but I don"t. Maybe someday!

fx

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 04:42:46 GMT

Aaron, I tried to email M. Taillevent but no answer ;) I guess we will never know if he used calamus but wrote galingal in his book. However I saw here http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/g/galang01.html that galanga was known in Europe for 7 centuries, since ginger is found in almost every medieval recipe and galanga is a cousin of it, it seems to be quite likely that indeed he used this spice and not another. If I can raise Taillevent on MSN I"ll ask him to confirm, but in the meanwhile if you allow I"ll use Ockham"s razor and assume he wrote it right.

Aaron

Tue, 9 Sep 2008 17:11:46 GMT

The problem is that the word frequently gets confused when things are translated from one language to another or confused during a transription, and the error persists once it"s made.

Please have a look at the two wikipedia articles I referenced (I tried to put links to them in my original comment, which is probably why you never received the comment).

It"s possible that galangal was brought from Southeast Asia to Europe via the Silk Road in the Middle Ages, but it seems more parsimonious that it was actually calamus, an ingredient that is known to have been added to wine and that is known to have been mistranslated as galangal in other circumstances.

fx

Tue, 9 Sep 2008 16:05:09 GMT

Aaron, I just checked my book about Taillevent"s viandier and ... it is galanga all right.

"Garingal is the name of the root of galanga. This plant is from the same family of the ginger with an eatable root. In the Middle Ages, people considered that the best one is the small galanga, reddish in color and coming from India, hard and heavy as opposed to the big galanga, white or greyish and coming from China. "

This spice appears twice in Le Viandier.

Aaron

Tue, 9 Sep 2008 15:47:02 GMT

I think it"s possible that galangal is not the correct ingredient.

For one thing, it"s indiginous to Southeast Asia, so it"s unlikely that it would have been available in medieval Europe.

There have been other situations where "calamus" was listed as an ingredient, but was mistakenly translated as galangal. Look at the wikipedia entry on Abramelin Oil for an example.

Calamus was frequently used as an additive to wine in the middle ages. Look at the wikipedia entry for calamus (a.k.a. Sweet Flag) for more information, including a citation regarding its use in wine.

fx

Tue, 9 Sep 2008 02:24:14 GMT

Malto, indeed I was much pleased to see that there is a market for mature manly appeal - I wonder what my readers will say about the gentleman who skinned, roasted and carved the wild boar!

Malto

Tue, 9 Sep 2008 00:48:34 GMT

It"s hilarious to see all the women fight over Dan. Maybe FX can use it as a marketing point: "Be featured on FX, win youself hordes of female fans!" Dan... the new "face that launched a thousand ships"?

fx

Mon, 8 Sep 2008 06:46:22 GMT

Laura, hypocras is cold so I guess you could serve it during most seasons, although Spanish sangria might have more success during the summer. If you make some, make a lot and keep it bottled, it should store forever!

fx

Mon, 8 Sep 2008 06:45:15 GMT

FX, there is more to come also with Dan and his crew, and then some with your father, who was very photogenic. I hope he will like the pictures too, maybe a reader will offer a beeeeeg hug!

Fran�ois-Xavier CREMEL

Mon, 8 Sep 2008 02:22:03 GMT

Hi FX,
I didn"t get the chance to view the hypocras preparation, very intersting and very well pictured!! Even nicer with Dan"s smile.
Looking forward to the next serie.
have a nice week.
FX Cremel.

Laura C

Sun, 7 Sep 2008 23:48:05 GMT

Everything looks phenomenal. I think that hypocras would make a fabulous drink for the holidays here in Vermont!! Definitely adding that to my holiday recipe repertoire. Although I"m sure it"s quite tasty any time of year!!

fx

Fri, 5 Sep 2008 15:41:23 GMT

Aaron, I did not see your comment about Calamus - sorry.

Aaron

Fri, 5 Sep 2008 10:21:43 GMT

FX, I see that you have not posted my comment regarding Calamus. I hope I did not offend--that was not my intention.

fx

Fri, 5 Sep 2008 09:52:24 GMT

Jason, I did not speak much with the Pr�fet, but these guys never do less than three banquets a day, so by not staying more than an hour at each place they can make more of them. Many Pr�fet are formerly with the Gendarmerie and don"t drink that much I guess.

fx

Fri, 5 Sep 2008 09:49:33 GMT

Sarah, I don"t think that hypocras has much been used to marinate anything but feudal lords" palates!

fx

Fri, 5 Sep 2008 09:48:52 GMT

Callipygia, thanks for letting me know about Posh Nosh, this is great stuff! Dan didn"t need much help to smile he is such a great person and I think he just liked the idea of making a gallon of spiced wine for a party.

fx

Fri, 5 Sep 2008 09:43:34 GMT

David, I asked my galangal when it arrived in Europe but this one was fresh out the boat. This being said medieval cuisine makes prodigal use of many spices we have come to associate with exotic Asian dishes, including ginger. The big difference is that we get way better spices way cheaper nowadays, and the hoi polloi like us gets to enjoy them too.

fx

Fri, 5 Sep 2008 09:41:48 GMT

Helena for the hypocras I have all sorts of very serious medieval recipes and all use a different combination of spices although always a limited number of different spices, not the whole spice shop. I really recommend that you try it instead of buying some bottled stuff, it"s only a matter of mixing everything, leaving to steep, the filtering. That"s all.

fx

Fri, 5 Sep 2008 09:37:34 GMT

Ariun, Dan agreed for the beeeeeg hug but will ask permission from his wife first!

fx

Fri, 5 Sep 2008 09:37:03 GMT

Hello Dan and Hanne and thanks for your warm welcome in Hattonch�tel! As you can see you are already becoming quite popular with my readers, a lady even asked a print of your picture to put in her kitchen. For the beeeeeg hug we"ll ask Hanne if she allows it of course! Hope to see you in Denmark some time soon. Hold on for the other articles, more is on the way.

Dan

Fri, 5 Sep 2008 05:44:33 GMT

Hello FX
It is me Dan. It was a pleasure to have you here, and we had a lot of fun. You say that you have taken more than 1800 pictures. Some of them must have been without my smiling face.
All the things we made for drinking and eating was very good and the taste was very fine. I hope that your readers can wait, they have to, until you have finished the 7 articles.
Ariun, who wanted to give me a beeeeg hug, may be we could arrange some thing!
FX - Hope to see you in Denmark one day.

Ariun

Thu, 4 Sep 2008 23:56:54 GMT

What a lovely cheerful person Dan is! I want to give him a BEEEEG HUG! (But will refrain -- presence of his honey Hanne noted).

Helena

Thu, 4 Sep 2008 23:02:33 GMT

Hmm ... nice, I could almost taste the hypocras.

If I recall correctly, I might have seen commercial versions of Medieval spiced wines around. (As in the product said it followed an old Medieval recipe, not that it was bottled and passed down from Medieval times.)

Had a lot more types of spices in it though, I wonder if it is the same stuff. Also as I recalled, it was de-alcoholed and sold in a health food store.

Sounds like a great alternative to mead and a Japanese tonic called Yomeishu that has been around since 1602. Now if I can only find a commercial brand that bottles this stuff for convinience.

david

Thu, 4 Sep 2008 22:56:23 GMT

Having just come into acquaintance with galangal in the last five years, I am curious when did it come to Europe. It is a Thai spice as I am familiar with it.

Still it looks like a nice drink for a party.

Callipygia

Thu, 4 Sep 2008 17:57:40 GMT

Love Dan"s smiling face and the instructions for the wyne! I can"t help thinking of POSH NOSH episodes (if you are a fan of Richard E. Grant look on youtube) at this chateau. Extraordinary food for ordinary people!

Sarah

Thu, 4 Sep 2008 10:58:25 GMT

Lovely! I wonder if they ever marinated anything in hypocras back then...?

Jason

Thu, 4 Sep 2008 10:44:55 GMT

What is it that the stuffy bureaucrat complained about? I mean, not that I"m surprised ;)

fx

Thu, 4 Sep 2008 08:16:06 GMT

Dave, I just added a bit about the taste, basically it"s a bit like port with spice, very fragrant, intriguing taste with these uncommon spices.

fx

Thu, 4 Sep 2008 08:15:28 GMT

Rodrigo, thanks for visiting! Dan is a fun-loving person who smiles very naturally - I guess he was one of these babies who keep smiling all day and he just never stopped. And he makes a lot of tongue-in-cheek jokes - we have jolly good fun! Yes the hypocras still surviving in Europe are most warm and served around Christmas, but it works equally well with room-temperature wine. The manjar blanco you describe may be related to the same recipe via the Spanish peninsula.

Rodrigo

Thu, 4 Sep 2008 08:01:04 GMT

The faces of Dan are great!. Is he barely refraining from smiling in the first one?

I had thought Hypocras was going to be a hot beverage. Surprising to find it is a cold one.

Many thanks for the post, and indeed I look forward to the others, specially the goose-feather deseeded currants and manger-blanc, which sent me into a frenzy of reading. We have a "Manjar Blanco" here in chile but is more of a milk reduction-caramelisation.

Thanks again!

DaveDragon

Thu, 4 Sep 2008 07:36:19 GMT

What does it taste like? Please describe.
Another great article btw.
Thanks
Dave