If the goal of February and March is to stay warm while preparing the garden for summer’s fruits and vegetables, then a good book or podcast makes the perfect companion in the meantime. To complement the moment, here’s a recipe for spiced wine from The Medieval Cookbook by Maggie Black.
The following is the recipe as it was originally written in 14th century English.
Piment
“Pur fait ypocras. Troys vnces de canell & iii vnces gyngeuer; spykenard de Spayn, le pays dun denerer; garyngale, clowes gylofre, clowes gylofre, poeure long, noiey mugadey, mayioyame, cardemonii, de chescun dm. Vnce; de tout soit fait powdour &c. (Curye on Inglysch, IV. 199)
Ingredients
Serves 12-16 people
- Litres / 3 ½ pints / 8 ¾ cups red wine
- 175g / 6oz white sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon of the following
- Ground cloves
- Grated nutmeg
- Majoram (fresh if possible)
- Ground cardamom
- Ground black pepper
- Pinch of grated galingale
Directions
This is called piment – a general name for sweetened spiced wines – rather than hypocras because the long pepper (poeure long) and the grains of paradise (grayne de paradis) in the old recipe are virtually unobtainable today. So is spikenard (spykenard)
Warm the wine until it just begins to steam. Add the sugar and allow to dissolve. Mix all the spices and herbs together. Stir half this mixture into the wine, then taste and slowly add more until you achieve a flavor you like (you will probably need most or all of the mixture). Simmer your ‘mix’ very gently for 10 minutes. Strain through a jelly bag (which may take some hours). Bottle when cold, then cork securely. Use withing one week.
Genevieve's Notes
When I made this, I couldn’t find galingale, but I did find its cousin, Thai ginger. Since I enjoy a bit of spice, I used a generous pinch. I also didn’t have a jelly bag, so I used a trick my father taught me, filtering the wine through a coffee filter into a pitcher or decanter. Instead of bottling it, my friends and I drank it warm once it had slightly cooled. We discovered that expressing a little orange peel over the drink enhances the spiced flavors even more!
You can purchase the book online or at your local bookshop. Cookbook
