Anti-Gas Cordial

A non-sweetened brandy cordial designed to be pleasant to sip and also have carminative and digestive effects.

-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa

Recipe:

5 slices fresh Ginger
2 tablespoons Caraway seed
2 tablespoons Cumin seed
4 tablespoons Dill seed
2 tablespoons Fennel seed
5 tablespoons Anise seed
1 teaspoon Cardamom
1 teaspoon ground Coriander seed
3 cups Brandy

I bruised the whole seeds slightly with a mortar and pestle, added all the spices to a large jar, and poured on the brandy and steeped for 2 weeks. I used such large quantities and bruised the seeds because I wasn't going to soak it for very long. The ground coriander was used instead of whole coriander, which I prefer, because I ran out of coriander unexpectedly.

After two weeks, I strained out some of the cordial and bottled it. This is not a sweetened coridal; I don't think it needs sweetening.

This tincture is an approximation of a period 'compound distilled water', along the lines of those recipes in Gervase Markham's English Housewife and Plat's Delightes for Ladies. It's not directly from a period recipe, but uses the same principles. The mixture is somewhat similar to that in the Johnstone MSS, cited in "Precious Waters":

"A cordial. - Take galangal, ginger, liquorice, and fennel; blend them together and powder them, and drink with an old ale."

Most period waters would have been herbs and/or spices macerated in wine, ale or aquavitae and redistilled. We don't have that option, so the method used here is tincturing in Brandy. I'm aware that the inexpensive brand of brandy I purchased was probably aged in oak to give it more flavor, but I didn't choose to spring for the more expensive non-aged special brandies. I normally make this with a vodka base, suspecting it would have been made with ale (a grain base) in the original.

Most of the spices used here are carminative, that is, their 'heating properties' encourage the expulsion of gas from the digestive system.

Gerard's Herbal says:

Of anise: "The seed wasted and consumeth winde, and is good against belchings and upbraidings of the stomacke, allayeth gripings of the belly. . . "
Of Caraway: "It consumeth winde, it is delightful to the stomach and taste, it helpeth concoction [digestion]. . ."
Of Coriander seeds, "Also, if it be taken with meate fasting, it causeth good digestion, and shutteth up the stomack, keepeth away fumes from rising up out of the same. . ."
Of Cumin: "The seed of Cumin scattereth and breaketh all the windiness of the stomack, belly, guts, and matrix: it is good against the griping torments, gnawing or fretting of the belly . . ."
Of Dill: "The seed, being drunk . . . allayeth gripings and windiness"
Of Fennel: "Fennel seed drunk asswages the paine of the stomacke, and wambling of the same, or desire to vomit, and breaketh winde. . . The seed and herbe of sweet Fennell is equal in vertues with Annise seed."
Of Ginger: "it is of an heating and digesting qualitie, it gently looseth the belly, and is profitable for the stomacke. . . canded, greene or condited ginger is hot and moist in qualitie. . . "

Dill, Fennel and Anise seed are mentioned in compound distillation recipes in Markham; Markham says water of fennel is "good to make a fat body small, and also for the eyes." Dill and Fennel are listed among Thomas Tussers' "Herbs to still in summer" in his 500 Points of Good Husbandry, and Cumin is one of the herbs he lists for 'Physic."

It's not clear whether fresh ginger was available to Renaissance cooks and brewers, but I have come across (and subsequently lost) a reference to a 16th century gardener having a pot for sprouting ginger in, so they may have been sprouting the dried rhizomes in some way. The period references to green ginger also suggest that fresh ginger rhizomes may may have been available as part of the sprouting process. If I were using dried ones, I'd use twice as much of the ginger.

Resources:

Fitz-Maurice, Forester Nigel. "Precious Waters: A miscellany of early cordials." Web: http://web.raex.com/~obsidian/precwat.html
Gerard, John. The Herbal, or General History of Plants. (Dover, 1975)
Shapiro, Marc. Alcoholic Drinks of the Middle Ages. (The CA on Alcoholic Beverages)Web: http://users.stargate.net/~mshapiro/calcohol.html
Tusser, Thomas. His Good Points of Husbandry, 1557. Published 1931 by Country Life Limited, London; edited by Dorothy Hartley.
Vargas, Pat, Rich Gulling, and Pamela Lappies. Cordials from Your Kitchen. (VT: Storey Books, 1997)

All materials copyright Jennifer Heise or original authors as otherwise specified. Permission is granted for use as printed handouts and for cooking as long as you let me know (jenne.heise@gmail.com) and if you republish, get me a copy. My homepage: http://www.gallowglass.org/jadwiga