Distilled Cordial

The Art Of Cookery · Hannah Glasse · 1747
Source
The Art Of Cookery
Status
success · extracted 12 days ago
Not a recipe
No
Ingredients (26)
Base for cordial
Roots
Herbs and Flowers
Seeds and Berries
For cochineal infusion
For distillation base
Instructions (10)
Preparation of Ingredients
  1. Prepare all these Simples thus.
  2. Let the flowers be gathered as they come in season, and put them in glasses with a large mouth, and put with them as much good sack as will cover them, and tie up the glasses close with bladders wet in the sack, with a cork and leather tied upon it close; adding more flowers and sack as occasion is; and when one glass is full, take another, till you have your quantity of flowers to distil.
  3. Put cochineal into a pint bottle, with half a pint of sack, and tie it up close with a bladder under the cork, and another on the top wet in sack, tied up close with brown thread; and then cover it up close with leather, and bury it standing upright in a bed of hot horse-dung for nine or ten days.
  4. Look at it, and if dissolved, take it out of the dung, but don't open it till you distil.
  5. Slice all the roses, beat the seeds and the alkermes berries, and put them into another glass.
  6. Amongst all, put no more sack than is necessary.
Distillation
  1. When you intend to distil, take a pound of the best Venice treacle, and dissolve it in six pints of the best white wine, and three of red rose-water.
  2. Put all the ingredients into a bason, and stir them all together.
  3. Distil them in a glass still, (balnea Mariae).
  4. Don't open the ingredients till the same day you distil.
Original Text
Take three ounces of hartshorn, shaved and boiled in borage water, or succory water, rose, or lettuce water; or three pints of any of these waters boiled to a jelly, and put the jelly and hartshorn both into the still; and add a pint more of these waters when you put it in to the still; take the roots of ellicampane, gentian, cyprus-roots, of each an ounce; of blessed thistle, call'd carduus, and angelica, of each an ounce; of sorrel roots two ounces; of balm, of sweet marjoram, of burnet, of each half an handful; lily-convally flowers, borage blossoms, rosemary and marigold flowers, of each two ounces; of citron-rinds, carduus seeds and citron seeds, of alkermes-berries and cochineal, of each of these an ounce. Prepare all these Simples thus. Let the flowers be gathered as they come in season, and put them in glasses with a large mouth, and put with them as much good sack as will cover them, and tie up the glasses close with bladders wet in the sack, with a cork and leather tied upon it close; adding more flowers and sack as occasion is; and when one glass is full, take another, till you have your quantity of flowers to distil; put cochineal into a pint bottle, with half a pint of sack, and tie it up close with a bladder under the cork, and another on the top wet in sack, tied up close with brown thread; and then cover it up close with leather, and bury it standing upright in a bed of hot horse-dung for nine or ten days; look at it, and if dissolved, take it out of the dung, but don't open it till you distil; slice all the roses, beat the seeds and the alkermes berries, and put them into another glass; amongst all, put no more sack than is necessary; and when you intend to distil, take a pound of the best Venice treacle, and dissolve it in six pints of the best white wine, and three of red rose-water, and put all the ingredients into a bason, and stir them all together, and distil them in a glass still, (balnea Mariae) don't open the ingredients till the same day you distil.
Notes