Mead Making 101

 I have been slacking off with brewing research, but I have spent some time teaching.  This is a presentation I created to teach introductory brewing classes at U Brew U and the An Dubhaigheann Spring Schola.

Polish or Lithuanian Mead with Hops

Polish or Lithuanian Mead with Hops

Olaus Magnus Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus, Rome 1555

Original Recipe:

De modo coquendi medonem Polonico, vel Lithuanico more.  Capiatur certa quantitas boni mellis puri et integri,iuxta praemeditatem quantitatem conficientis, hoc scilicet exemplo: Decem librae mellis, & XLlibrae aquae, aut plus aut minus, iuxta fortitudinem desideratem. Calefiat aqua in caldari, seu cacabo cupreo, vel aereo magno, melquae imponatur, ut bene coquator & despumentur.  Coquator etiam lupulus seorsum in uno sacculo (modo superius dicto) ad quanitatum unius librae, vel minus, iuxta quantitatem mellis & aquae: quo decoct& aqua Bullita, ac expumata, deponatur usquequo parum tepescat, & imponator saccus lupuli cum aqua sue decocionis, ac fex ceruisie (vel fermentum, ut supra) beneque cooperiatur, ut stet per unum diem, ac noctem; & demum ac sanissimus potus, qui el vino aequiparari poterit, vel in necessitate vineis destructis, voluerit, secundum hoc addat, vel subtrahat mel, in appositione decoctionis.   Et haec veraciter relata sunt mihi Rome MD XLIII per venerabilem virum D.  Marinum Polonum Poenitentiarium Gnesnensem, qui & sua manu talem medonem gratissimo sappore, & bonitate confecit, atque ita carista vini surgente, in Roma commodissime fieri poterit.
(Olaus Magnus 1555, 448)

Translation:

On brewing mead in the Polish or Lithuanian manner.  Take a certain amount of good honey, pure and unadulterated, the proportion to be determined by the quantity of mead you intend to brew:  for example, ten pounds of honey to five gallons of water, more or less, according to the strength required.  Heat the water in a cauldron, or a large copper or bronze cooking pot, and pour the honey in.  See that it boils well and skim off the froth.  Boil the hops separately in a little bag the way I described above, up to one pound of them, according to the quantity of honey and water.  When the hops are fully cooked, the water boiled and the froth skimmed off, lay it on one until it is just warm and place the bag of hops in it, with the the water they were boiled in , together with the dregs of beer, or yeast as above; then cover it completely and let it stand for a day and a night.  Finally, pour off the whole of this brew mixture into a clean vessel, and it will turn out to be a most delicious, healthy drink, which will be able to match true wine or, in case of need if the vineyards have been destroyed, serve most conveniently in place of it…If anyone wants to make his mead milder or strongr, he must accordingly increase or decrease the amount of honey that he puts into the mixture.  All this was truthfully told to me at Rome in 1543 by that Venerable man, my Lord Martin, a father confessor from Gniezo in Poland, who with his own hands made mead of this quality.
(Olaus Magnus 1998, 639)

Redaction:

1. Heat 4.5 gallons of water in a large copper or bronze cauldron
2. Pour honey into the water.
3. Boil, skimming the scum from the surface.
4. In a separate pot, Boil the hops in a linen bag until ½ of the water has boiled off.
5. Allow the must to cool.
6. Add hops in their bag, and the water the hops were boiled in to the pot.
7. Add the dregs of beer
8. Cover and allow to stand over night
9. Move to a clean vessel

Ingredients:

9.4 lbs honey*
4.5 gallons of water*
2 oz. Hallertau Hops
Lees from another batch of mead

*See Note 2

Process:

1. I boiled the honey and water in a stainless steel pot on the stove, skimming the foam from the top.
2. In a separate pot, I boiled 2 oz. of Hallertau hops pellets in 2 quarts of water, until it reduced by half.
3. I allowed both pots to cool.
4. I poured the contents of both pots into a 5 gallon carboy.
5. I added the lees from another batch of short mead, which was brewed using Nottingham ale yeast to the carboy.
6. I placed an airlock on the carboy, and allowed it to brew to completion.

Notes:

1. In the earlier Scandinavian recipe, the hops are boiled in a separate vessel, tied up in a linen bag until half of the water has boiled off.
“When this has been done, an appropriate quantity of hops should be boiled in a linen bag inside a covered pot over the same fire until at least half the water has evaporated, so their bitterness may be evident”
(Olaus Magnus 1998, 637-8)

2. The translation calls for 10 lbs of honey to 5 gallons of water.  However, the original, Latin recipe measures both honey and water in librae, which is an ancient Roman measure of weight equivalent to 12 oz.  It calls for decem librae mellis & XL Librae aquae, or 120oz. (7.5 lbs.) of honey, and 480oz. of water.  One gallon of water weighs 8.36 lbs. or 133.76 oz.  So, by volume, that is 3.58851674641 gallons of water.  Because this recipe needed to ferment in a 5 gallon carboy, I increased the amount of honey and water while keeping the proportion of the original recipe. 
3.58851674641 X 1.25=4.48564593301 gallons of water
7.5 X 1.25= 9.375 pounds of honey
(Olaus Magnus 1555, 448)
http://www.tribunesandtriumphs.org/roman-life/roman-weights-and-measures.htm
https://www.unrv.com/culture/roman-weights-measures.php

3. The first documented link that I know of, between hops and brewing comes from Picardy in Northern France, in 822. Abbot Adalhard of the Benedictine monastery of Corbie, in the Somme valley near Amiens, wrote a series of statutes on the proper running of the monastery, including the gathering of wild hops.  Around 1150, Abbess Hildegard of Bingen published a book called Physica Sacra, which translates best as “The Natural World”. Book I, Chapter 61, “De Hoppho”, or “Concerning the hop.” In this chapter he discusses the nature and uses of the hop, including its use in brewing. Modern German sources claim that hop gardens appear in records dating from the second half of the ninth century in and around Hallertau, in Bavaria, Southern Germany, which is still the world’s largest single hop-growing area.(Cornell 2009)
The first documented hop cultivation was in 736, in the Hallertau region of present-day Germany.  Hop cultivation in period is documented in Germany, France and Holland.  (Hornsey 1999)   
Because Germany is closest to Poland and Lithuania, I decided to use Hallertau hops.  I was unable to acquire fresh hops for this project so I had to use dried hop pellets.

4. The original recipe recommended boiling the wort in a copper or bronze cauldron.  Because I am a poor public school teacher, I cannot afford a  copper or bronze cauldron.  The town I live in frowns on open fires as well. As such, this brew was boiled in a stainless steel stock pot on a gas stove in my kitchen.

5. The original recipe said to cover, and allow the must to stand overnight.  However, I have 4 cats and two children.  This would not have ended well.  For this reason, the must was moved to a carboy once it was cool.

6. I do not brew beer, and as such do not have the lees from a batch of beer available.  However, I had just racked a batch of short mead when I started this project.  I used some of the lees from that carboy to start this mead.  The original mead was a hopped short mead brewed with Nottingham ale yeast.

7. I used clover honey because it was available and affordable.  In period, bees would have collected nectar from a wide variety of locally available flowers.  Single crop honeys would not have been readily available.  A wildflower honey would be more accurate.
                                                                       


Bibliography:

Olaus Magnus  Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus.  Rome, 1555

Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus (History of the Northern People) Originally Published Rome, 1555. Translated by Peter Fisher and Humphrey Higgins. London: The Hakluyt Society 1998

Krupp, Christina M., Gillen, Bill Making Medieval Mead or, Mead Before Digby The Compleat Anachronist #120, 2003

Cornell, Martin, (2009) “A Short History of Hops”  Zythophile
http://zythophile.co.uk/2009/11/20/a-short-history-of-hops/

Ian Hornsey. (1999) Brewing. RSC Paperbacks

“Roman Weights and Measures”
http://www.tribunesandtriumphs.org/roman-life/roman-weights-and-measures.htm

“History of Ancient Rome”
https://www.unrv.com/culture/roman-weights-measures.php

Syrup of Simple Sikanjabin (Oxymel)

Syrup of Simple Sikanjabin (Oxymel)

An Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook of the 13th Century, Translated by Charles Perry

Original Recipe:

Take a ratl of strong vinegar and mix it with two ratls of sugar, and cook all this until it takes the form of a syrup. Drink an ûqiya of this with three of hot water when fasting: it is beneficial for fevers of jaundice, and calms jaundice and cuts the thirst, since sikanjabîn syrup is beneficial in phlegmatic fevers: make it with six ûqiyas of sour vinegar for a ratl of honey and it is admirable.
...[gap: top third of this page has been cut off]...
... and a ratl of sugar; cook all this until it takes the consistency of syrup. Its benefit is to relax the bowels and cut the thirst and vomiting, and it is beneficial in bilious fevers.

 Redaction:

Ingredients:

450g strong vinegar
900g sugar
-or-
225g sour vinegar
450g honey

Combine ingredients and heat until the mixture has reduced and has taken the form of a syrup.  To serve, combine in a 3:1 ratio hot water to syrup.

Process:

Like so many period recipes, this required research into the measurements used.  Western University in London Ontario has done extensive research into medieval Islamic measurements. Their research is available online.  The ratl and uqiya are measurements of weight, which were predominantly used for measuring food items and commodities.  Several weights were reported for the Ratl.  It was approximately 300g in the 8th century, 437.5g between the 10th and 12th century, and 450g after the 12th century.  As the cookbook was published in the 13th century, I opted for the 12th century and later measure.  An uqiya is approximately 37.5g.
  Once I had measured the ingredients, I combined them in a pot on the stove and cooked them at a simmer allowing them to reduce to the correct consistency.

Notes:

Sugar:

Crystallized sugar was discovered by the time of the Imperial Guptas, around the 5th century CE. The Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides in the 1st century CE described sugar in his medical treatise De Materia Medica, and Pliny the Elder, a 1st-century CE Roman, described sugar in his Natural History: "Sugar is made in Arabia as well, but Indian sugar is better. It is a kind of honey found in cane, white as gum, and it crunches between the teeth. It comes in lumps the size of a hazelnut. Sugar is used only for medical purposes." Crusaders brought sugar back to Europe after their campaigns in the Holy Land, where they encountered caravans carrying "sweet salt". Early in the 12th century, Venice acquired some villages near Tyre and set up estates to produce sugar for export to Europe.
From this information, one can extrapolate that granulated sugar can be used in this recipe.  However, since period sugar would most likely not be as refined as what is commercially available, I opted to use turbinado sugar, as it is minimally processed, in order to more closely match what would have been available in period. 

Vinegar:

According to Oxford English Dictionaries, The word vinegar arrived in Middle English from Old French (vyn egre; 'sour wine'), which in turn derives from Latin: vinum (wine) + acer (sour).  The recipe calls for strong vinegar but does not specify the type.  The recipe is Middle Eastern, and is still popular in modern day Iran.  Shiraz is one of the largest cities in IrDan.  By the 9th century, Shiraz had become known for its wine production.  Two types of white wine were produced and exported.  As white wine was being produced in the region, it is plausible that white wine vinegar would have been available and used to make sekanjabin and oxymel.

Vinegar based beverages:

Historically, vinegar has been a main ingredient in many drinks.
Posca was a mixture of vinegar and water which constituted the drink of the soldiers, the lower classes, and the slaves of ancient Rome.  Posca is mentioned in the writings of Pliny the Elder and Plautus, and was drank by Cato the Elder when on campaigns. 
Oxymel was a mixture of honey and vinegar.  Cato the Elder described it as such:
Oxymelli. Fit vinum ex aceto & melle quod oxymel vocaverunt voce Graecanica. Nam oξ(?) dicitur Graecis acetu & μίλ mel. Fit autem oxymel hoc modo. Mellis decem librae cum aceti heminis quinque, haec decies subserve faciunt atque ita sinunt inveterare. Themison summus autor damnavit oxymel & hydromel. Est autem hydromel vinum ex aquae & melle confectum, unde & nome. Celebrant autores ex omphacomel, quod fit ex uvae semiacerbae succo & melle fortiter trite unde & nome: Graec enim όμφας dicitur uvae acerbae, & όμφαφκας vocant uvas & fructus immaturus. Hinc omphalicium oleum dictum, quod ex olivis acerbis quas δίγρας(?) vocant, fit: & omphacium ex uva, quod vulgo agreste nominitant.
— Cato, reproduced by Columella, De Re Rustica[4]
A wine made from vinegar and honey, which in Greece was called oxymel, (from Ancient Greek oξύ, meaning 'acetu ', and μίλ, meaning 'mel', hence [Latin] "oxymel"). It is made thus. Ten pounds of honey with five heminas[5] of vinegar, which will be subsumed. Themison confused oxymel and hydromel. But hydromel wine is made from water and honey, hence the name. Its name recalls the creation of omphacomel, which is made from semi-dry [i.e. sharp] grapes and sweet honey, hence the name, from Ancient Greek όμφας, meaning 'uvae acerbae, Sour grapes ', and όμφαφκας, meaning 'fructus immaturus, unripe fruit'. Hence what is called omphalicium oleum ["omphalic oil"], from sour olives which in Greek is called δίγρας(?), and omphacium from grapes, commonly called agreste.
In the 1593 work Enchiridion Chirurgicum, oxymel was recommended as part of a treatment for ophthalmia.
Sekanjabin is an ancient Middle Eastern syrup based drink made with vinegar and spices. The name sekanjabin is from the Persian term  sirka anjubin, which means “honeyed vinegar.”  In period sekanjabin appears to have been used medicinally.  In the 10th century, physician Ibn Sina wrote Canon of Medicine, a book with instruction on everything from proper diet, to childbirth, and even exercise.  This book listed many medicinal used for sekanjabin, as a digestive aid and to aid with bodily imbalanaces.  He also believed it was helpful in getting a drug into bodily tissues.  The author of An Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook of the 13th Century attributed many medicinal qualities to sekanjabin as well, stating “it is beneficial for fevers of jaundice, and calms jaundice and cuts the thirst, since sikanjabîn syrup is beneficial in phlegmatic fevers.”
Many modern recipes contain herbs such as mint, however, I could not find an example of this being done in period.  As such, I made the recipe without herbs, as written.

Honey:

Most likely, in period oxymel would have been made with local honey gathered from hives that fed on indigenous wildflowers, and cultivated crops.  Unfortunately, this was not readily available, so I used a raw unfiltered wildflower honey produced in the United States.

References:

Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook Kitab al tabikh fi-l-Maghrib wa-l-Andalus fi `asr al-Muwahhidin, limu'allif majhul. The Book of Cooking in Maghreb and Andalus in the era of Almohads, by an unknown author.
M. Islamil Marcinkowski, Measures and Weights in the Islamic World, International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC) International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) in 2003.
W. Hinz Islamische Masee und Gewicht Umgerechnet ins metrische System, (Leiden, Brill, 1959)
Dalby, Andrew. "Posca" entry in Food in the Ancient World from A to Z, p. 270. Routledge, 2003. ISBN 0-415-23259-7
Antoine Chaumette (1593). Enchiridion Chirurgicum (in Latin). p. 64.
Pliny the Younger (1853). Naturalis historiae (in Latin). xxxvii. p. 271
Friedman, D. (2000, September 4). Chapter One: On Drinks. Retrieved 14 2015, September, from An Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook of the 13th Century:
J. Robinson (ed), The Oxford Companion to Wine, Third Edition, p. 676, Oxford University Press 2006, ISBN 0-19-860990-6
Websites:
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Andalusian/andalusian10.htm#Heading50
http://data.nur.nu/Kutub/English/Avicenna_Canon-of-Medicine_text.pdf
http://italophiles.com/andalusian_cookbook.pdf

Hippocras from Le Menagiere de Paris

Hippocras

Le Menagier de Paris

Original Recipe:  

YPOCRAS. Pour faire pouldre d’ypocras, prenez un quarteron de très fine canelle triée à la dent[1258], et demy quarteron de fleur de canelle fine, une once de gingembre de mesche trié fin blanc et une once de graine de paradis, un sizain[1259] de noix muguettes et de garingal ensemble, et faites tout battre ensemble. Et quant vous vouldrez faire l’ypocras, prenez demye once largement et sur le plus de ceste pouldre et deux quarterons de succre, et les meslez ensemble, et une quarte de vin à la mesure de Paris.
Et nota que la pouldre et le succre meslés ensemble, font pouldre de duc.

English Translation:

 (From The Goodman of Paris: Atreatise on Moral and Domestic Economy by a Citizen of Paris c. 1393, Translated by Eileen Power)

HIPPOCRAS. To make powdered hippocras, take a quarter of very fine cinnamon, hand-picked by tasting it, and half a quarter of fine flour of cinnamon, an ounce of very fine string ginger and an ounce of grains [of paradise], a sixth of nutmeg and galingale together, and bray them all together. And when you want to make hippocras, take a good half-ounce or more of this powder and two quarters of sugar, and mix them together, and a quart of wine by Paris measure. And nota that the powder and the sugar mixed together is [hight] the Duke’s Powder.

Redaction:

 Spices:
124.8g cinnamon
62.4g dried cassia flowers
41.6g dried ginger
41.6g lesser galingale (dried)
41.6g nutmeg
41.6g grains of paradise

Duke’s Powder: ( amounts have been adjusted for smaller quantity of wine)
31.7g spice mixture
190.4g sugar
Hippocras:
Dukes Powder
1 quart wine.

Process:

The recipe is somewhat vague.  It calls for a quarter of cinnamon, half a quarter of flour of cinnamon.  However, it does not specify a quarter of what?  An ounce? A pound?  However, the next recipe, also for hippocras specifically stated a quarter pound.  It is reasonable to extrapolate that this is what is meant.  In order to determine the weights of the ingredients, some research was necessary.   I consulted Tractatus se Ponderibus et Mensuris.  It is older than the recipe, but was still in use in the Elizabethan period.
By Consent of the whole Realm the King’s Measure was made, so that an English Penny, which is called the Sterling, round without clipping, shall weigh Thirty-two Grains of Wheat1 dry in the midst of the Ear; Twenty-pence make an Ounce; and Twelve Ounces make a Pound and Eight Pounds make a Gallon of Wine; and Eight Gallons of Wine make a Bushel of London; which is the Eighth Part of a Quarter.
A quick google search provided the weight of a dried grain of wheat.  According to Brittanica.com, a grain of wheat weighs .065 grams.  A penny weighs 32 grains of wheat or 2.08 grams.  An Ounce weighs the same as twenty pence, or 41.6 grams.  A pound is 12 ounces or 499.2 grams.
Mt next problem was measuring the wine.  According to “Capacity Measures of the British Aisles,” by carl Rickets
There were several versions of the Wine Gallon with a wide range of capacities from c100 fl oz (12Ö fl oz ‘pint’) up to c144 fl oz (18 fl oz ‘pint’). Physical standards for some of these have survived including the (City of London)Guildhall Gallon of c129 fl oz (c16 fl oz ‘pint’) and Renolds Pottle whose gallon equivalent would be c144 fl oz.
A chart later in the article states an old English wine gallon was 133 ounces (3933.28 ml). and a quart of wine would be 33.25 ounces or 983.3 ml.  I decided to use this measure. Because wine is most often sold in 750 ml. bottles, the recipe was adjusted accordingly.  The amount of dukes powder added was reduced to remain in proportion to the wine.
In order to recreate this recipe, I measured the ingredients and ground them by hand with a mortar and pestle.
The recipe calls for 1 ounce (41.6 grams) of the spice mixture to be mixed it with 2 quarters (249.6 grams) of sugar. To make the Duke’s Powder.  I adjusted the measurements here to allow for a standard size bottle of wine.  I combined 31.7g of the spice mixture with 190.4g sugar.  I then added this mixture to the wine.
The recipe did not specify how long to keep the spices in the wine. Looking at other period recipes I saw directions to allow it to steep anywhere from a few days to several months. Unlike some other period recipes, this one did not require heating the wine, or straining through a Hippocrates sleeve.  Another hippocras recipe in Le Menagier notes “nota the sugar and cinnamon should predominate”  As such I allowed the spiced to steep for several days until the cinnamon flavor was evident before decanting the hippocras into a bottle for storage and transport.

Notes:

About the Source:

Le Ménagier de Paris (often abbreviated as Le Ménagier, and meaning "The Parisian Household Book") is a French medieval guidebook from 1393 on a woman's proper behavior in marriage and running a household. It includes sexual advice, recipes, and gardening tips. Written in the voice of an elderly husband addressing his younger wife, the text offers a window into late medieval ideas of gender, household, and marriage. The recipe is from Article 5 in the second section of the book, under the subtitle “Other Small Things that be Needful.”
Throughout the book, the author makes several references to Hippocras, including two different recipes for hippocras, as well as including it in dinner menus.  In Article IV of the  second section of the book, How to Order Dinners and Suppers (the which teacheth you, the sovereign mistress of your household, must know how to orde and devise dinners and suppers with Master Jehan, and how to devise dishes and courses), hippocras and wafers are included several times.  In Menu II, Another Meat Dinner of Twenty Four Dishes in Six Courses, the author notes that the sixth course should include hippocras and wafers.  It is also included in the fourth course of  Menu VII, Another Meat Dinner,  and  the third course of Recipe XX, Another Fish Dinner for Lent.  The author also specifies that Hipppocras and wafers should be served in the final course at wedding feasts.
Because I do not speak French, I worked predominantly from Eileen Powers translation of the book.

Hippocras:

HIPPOCRAS is an old medicinal drink or cordial, made of wine mixed with spices—such as cinnamon, ginger and sugar—and strained through woollen cloths. The early spelling usual in English was ipocras, or ypocras. The word is an adaptation of the Med. Lat. Vinum Hippocraticum, or wine of Hippocrates, so called, not because it was supposed to be a receipt of the physician, but from an apothecary's name for a strainer or sieve, “ Hippocrates' sleeve ”
Early references to spiced wines refer to it as Pimen, a word derived from the late Latin pigmentum: aromatic or spice.
The earliest spiced wine recipe I found was in the Tractatus de Modo, a manuscript of recipes that was written in Latin at the end of 13th century.
A possible origin of the word hippocras:
Hippocrates, the famous Greek doctor, is spelled Hipocràs in modern Catalan and Ipocràs in medieval Catalan. Arnau de Vilanova (or Arnaud de Villeneuve) mentioned Ipocras (the doctor) and also gave a recipe for pimen. He taught in Montpellier. One can surmise that someone speaking Catalan and selling spices or pimen, would have changed the word pimen to ipocras or ypocras (the oldest spelling), with reference to Hippocrates, confirming the dietary orientation of the spiced wine. So, we assume the Catalan origin of the word hippocras.  However, the notes in Forme of Cury (1390) suggest that hippocras took its name from Hippocrates' sleeve, the bag or strainer, through which it was passed.

The first recipe of hippocras (ypocrasse or ypocras) was written in English, in the Forme of Cury in 1390.
This is an excerpt from Forme of Cury
(England, 1390)
The original source can be found at the Project Gutenberg website
PUR FAIT YPOCRAS. XX.IX. XI. Treys Unces de canett. & iii unces de gyngeuer. spykenard de Spayn le pays dun denerer, garyngale. clowes, gylofre. poeurer long, noiez mugadez. maziozame cardemonij de chescun i. quart' douce grayne & de paradys stour de queynel de chescun dim unce de toutes, soit fait powdour &c.
Similar recipes:
• The following recipes can be found in  Libre del Coch
(Spain, 1520 - Robin Carroll-Mann, trans.)
The original source can be found at Mark S. Harris' Florilegium
DUKE'S POWDER. Half an ounce of cinnamon, one eighth of cloves, and for the lords cast in nothing but cinnamon, and a pound of sugar; if you wish to make it sharp in flavor and [good] for afflictions of the stomach, cast in a little ginger. And the weights of the spices in the apothecary shops are in this manner: one pound is twelve ounces , one ounce, eight drachms; one drachm, three scruples; another way that you can more clearly understand this: a drachm weighs three dineros, a scruple is the weight of one dinero, and a scruple is twenty grains of wheat.
SPICES FOR HIPPOCRAS. Five parts cinnamon, three parts cloves, one part ginger; half of the wine must be white and half of it red, and for one azumbre, six ounces of sugar, mix everything together and cast it in a small glazed earthenware pot and give it a boil, when it comes to a boil, [cook it] no more, strain it through your sleeve often enough that it comes out clear.
** Note the reference to the Hippocrates sleeve

Spices used:

Grains of paradise:

Grains of Paradise or melegueta pepper (aframomum melegueta), are the small brown to black seeds of a perennial reedlike plant in the Ginger family, or zingiberaceae. The plant is also related to cardamom.
Indigenous to the West Coast of Africa and growing in swampy terrain, the seeds look like small black peppercorns with a white interior when crushed.
Grains of Paradise are commonly used in the cuisines of West and North Africa, where it has been traditionally imported by camel caravan routes through the Sahara desert, and whence they were distributed to Sicily and the rest of Italy. Mentioned by Pliny as "African pepper" but subsequently forgotten in Europe, they were renamed "grains of paradise" and became a popular substitute for black pepper in Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries. The Ménagier de Paris recommends it for improving wine that "smells stale".

Galingale: 

History and Etymology for galingale:
Middle English, borrowed from Anglo-French, GALANGAL; sedges of the genus Cyperus so called from their aromatic rhizomes
Galangal is a rhizome (or root) that looks a lot like ginger. Its flavour is similar to ginger, but not nearly as spicy and with hints of lemon and cardamom. It is used in South-East Asia the way that ginger is used in other Asian cuisines. It’s a key ingredient of Thai curries, soups and stews.
There are two types of galangal, "greater" and "lesser." Greater galangal is larger and milder, while lesser galangal is smaller, sweeter and more intense. Greater galangal is by far the more common of the two -- lesser galangal is rarely seen outside of China and Southeast Asia.  However, in period, lesser galangal was more common.  As such, I opted to use lesser galangal in this recipe.
Galangal appears to have travelled from China to Arabia and was then introduced into Europe either as early as the tenth century or in the late eleventh century.  In 1179, St. Hildegard of Bingen, the famed German herbalist and mystic, refers to it as “catarrh root” and “the spice of life” in her seminal work “Physica”.
For culinary purposes, both the French and English medieval people incorporated galangal in prepared dishes. It is used as an ingredient in a sauce called “Rapeye.”  A recipe for Rapeye can be found in Form of Curreye.
In another recipe, Cameline, (second section, Article V, subtitled “Sauces Not Boiled”), the author of Le Menagiere notes that: Likewise, Galingale which is heavy and firm to the cut , for sometimes it is spoilt, mouldy and light as dead wood; that is not good, but that which is heavy and firm to the knife like a nut, that is good.

Sugar: 

Crystallized sugar was discovered by the time of the Imperial Guptas, around the 5th century CE. The Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides in the 1st century CE described sugar in his medical treatise De Materia Medica, and Pliny the Elder, a 1st-century CE Roman, described sugar in his Natural History: "Sugar is made in Arabia as well, but Indian sugar is better. It is a kind of honey found in cane, white as gum, and it crunches between the teeth. It comes in lumps the size of a hazelnut. Sugar is used only for medical purposes." Crusaders brought sugar back to Europe after their campaigns in the Holy Land, where they encountered caravans carrying "sweet salt". Early in the 12th century, Venice acquired some villages near Tyre and set up estates to produce sugar for export to Europe.
In Le Menagiere,  Article V in the second section, under the subtitle “Beverages for the Sick,” in  the recipe for Tizanne Doulce, the author states: in each goblet put great plenty of crystallized sugar.
From this information, one can extrapolate that granulated sugar can be used in this recipe.  However, since period sugar would most likely not be as refined as what is commercially available, I opted to use an organic sugar that is minimally processed in order to more closely match what would have been available in period.

Cinnamon:

Cinnamon is native to Sri Lanka (Ceylon), the Moluccas, and the Malabar Coast of India and Burma.  The Arabs transported cinnamon via cumbersome land routes, resulting in a limited, expensive supply that made the use of cinnamon a status symbol in Europe in the Middle Ages.
Through the Middle Ages, the source of cinnamon remained a mystery to the Western world. Explorers and crusaders reported wild tales of cinnamon being pulled from the Nile in nets, or stolen from giant birds that used it to build nests.  Pliny the Elder wrote in the first century that traders had made this up to charge more, but the story remained current in Byzantium as late as 1310.
In period, cinnamon was available in both stick and powdered form.
Flour of Cinnamon:
I originally thought thought this meant ground cinnamon, but this made little sense to me.  Why use stick and ground cinnamon? Upon further research, I learned that dried cassia flowers were used in period for various medicinal purposes.  Dried cassia buds resembling cloves were, and still are used in the East for pickles, curries, candies, and spicy meat dishes.

Ginger:  

The recipe calls for string ginger.  In another recipe, Cameline, (second section, Article V, subtitled “Sauces Not Boiled”), the author of Le Menagiere states:  Nota that three differences there be between string ginger and columbine ginger.  For the string ginger has darker skin and is softer to the knife to cut, and lighter inside than the other, better and always dearer.  I could not find information on different types of ginger.  My best guesses are that he meant for her to choose young fresh ginger.  There are also tuberous plants that taste similar to ginger that he could be referring to.  I chose a light colored dried ginger for the hippocras.
The history of Ginger goes back over 5000 years when the Indians and ancient Chinese considered it a tonic root for all ailments. While Ginger originated in Southeast Asia, it has been cultivated in other countries for centuries. Ginger was also one of the first spices exported from Asia, arriving in Europe with the spice trade, and was used by ancient Greeks and Romans.  After the end of the Roman Empire, the Arabs took control of the spice trade from the east. Ginger became quite costly like many other spices. In medieval times it was commonly imported in a preserved form and used to make sweets.
For this reason I opted to use dried ginger for this recipe.

Nutmeg:

The nutmeg tree originates in Banda, the largest of the Molucca spice islands of Indonesia. The English word nutmeg comes from the Latin nux, meaning nut, and muscat, meaning musky. Prized in medieval times for its uses in cuisine, nutmeg was brought to Europe in the middle ages by the Arabs through the Venetians. The spice was very popular and very expensive. It was even rumored to ward off the plague and cause self-abortions.
In Le Managier, the author includes nutmeg in the recipe for cameline , (second section, Article V, subtitled “Sauces Not Boiled”), and notes: Of nutmegs, the heaviest and firmest to cut be best.  Because I found cutting an appropriately sized piece of nutmeg nearly impossible, I hand grated the correct amount by weight for the recipe.

Wine:

This recipe did not specify the type of wine to be used.  The recipe is from Medieval Paris.  In period wines were drunk young to prevent spoiling.  To best match what would have been available in period, I looked for a relatively young French Bordeaux.  I used a 2014 bottle of Mouton Cadet Bordeaux in this recipe.

References: 

Greco, G.L.; Rose, C.M. (2012). The Good Wife's Guide (Le Ménagier de Paris): A Medieval Household Book. Cornell University Press
Pichon, Jerome (18460 Le ménagier de Paris (v. 1 & 2)
Power, Eileen, (1928) The Goodman of Paris: A treatise on Moral and Domestic Economy by a Citizen of Paris c 1393
Hieatt, C.B., A Butler, S. 1985. Curye on Inglysch: English Culinary Manuscripts of the Fourteenth Century (including The "Forme of Cury"), pg. 148. Oxford University Press for the Early English Text Society.
Libre del Coch (Spain, 1520 - Robin Carroll-Mann, trans.
Daniel F. Austin, "Florida ethnobotany", p. 170, CRC Press, 2004, ISBN 0-8493-2332-0
Two Fifteenth-century Cookery-Books, Thomas Austin (ed,) Early English Texts Society, vol. 91 (1888)
Kew Science, Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 2017.
Tennent, Sir James Emerson. Account of the Island of Ceylon. 1. Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts.
Pliny the Elder; Bostock, J.; Riley, H.T. (1855). "42, Cinnamomum. Xylocinnamum". Natural History of Pliny, book XII, The Natural History of Trees. 3. London: Henry G. Bohn. pp. 137–140.
Websites:
https://www.sizes.com/library/British_law/ponderibus.htm
http://www.pewterbank.com/Measure_for_Measure...by_Carl_Ricketts....18.pdf
https://culinarylore.com/spices:what-are-grains-of-paradise/
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/galingale
https://unitproj.library.ucla.edu/biomed/spice/index.cfm?displayID=29
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/44070/44070-h/44070-h.htm#page_vol-2-243
http://www.medievalcookery.com/search/display.html?forme:190
https://www.oldcook.com/en/medieval-hippocras
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/578007.Hildegard_von_Bingen_s_Physica
http://www.indepthinfo.com/ginger/history.shtml
https://www.history.com/news/cinnamons-spicy-history

Period Containers Used for Storing and Serving Liquids

Medieval Storage and Serving Vessels

What would Fionnghuala the Volatile have served mead in during the late medieval and early renaissance period?

When paneling beverages with the East Kingdom Brewers Guild, one is awarded extra points for presenting their work in a period appropriate container.  

In order to be as accurate as possible, I began research into different types of storage and serving vessels.

Glass Bottles

I was unable to find any documentation of glass bottles being used in period in Europe.  

As far as I can tell, they came into use just after SCA period.

The Earliest example I was able to find is a wine bottle found in the remains of the Salutation Tavern in Oxford, England.

 This bottle can be dated between 1647 and 1670.

I found many examples of extant onion bottles, which were in use from the 1680s through the 1720s.  

Examples of Onion bottles have been found in archeological sites in both England and the United States.  (Dungworth, 2012)

This is an example of an English Onion bottle.   It belonged to Sir Richard Grosvenor (1689-1732) of Eaton Hall Eccleston, Chester.

He was a member of parliament and became mayor of Chester in 1715. This bottle was recovered from a wreck in the River Dee.

The archeological evidence I was able to find suggests that in period, wine was stored in barrels, and served in

pottery pitchers or jugs.

Barrels

Barrels were made of wood, and came in specific sizes, however, the sizes did vary depending on what would be stored in them.  

The tun is an English unit of liquid volume (not weight), used for measuring wine, beer, oil, or honey.

Typically a large vat or vessel, most often holding 252 wine gallons, but occasionally other sizes (e.g. 256, 240 and 208 gallons) were also used.  

In one example from 1507, a tun is defined as 240 gallons.

"He that ys a gawner owght to understonde there ys in a tunne lx systerns and every systern ys iiii galons be yt wyne or oylle."

"He that is a gauger ought to understand that there is in a tunne 60 sesters, and every sester is 4 gallons, be it wine or oil."

— Untitled manuscript, consisting of a list of various customs duties, dated 15 July 1507

Other sized barrels such as the butt, hogshead, and rundlet existed.  

The image below shows sizing for wine barrels.

However, the exact measures varied  throughout the period. (Zupco, 1985)

Pottery Pitchers and Jugs

Pottery pitchers and jugs were used in period to store and serve smaller amounts of wine, beer and mead.  

Many examples of period jugs and pitchers have been found in archeological digs throughout Europe.

Often, examples of this pottery can be found on display in museums.  

Here are some period examples.

English Pottery

English Pottery 1150-1300

Glazed Medieval Jug

This is an example of York glazed ware.  It was made and sold in York, England between 1150 and 1250.  

Ashampsteadware

This rounded jug is from the 13th century.  It was produced in Ashampstead, Berkshire.

 It was used for decanting and serving liquids.

This is another example of Ashampsteadware from the same time period.  

This vessel was used for storage of liquids.

Brill or Boarstallware

This jug was used for storage of liquids.  It was produced in or near Buckinhamshire between 1100 and 1250.  

It was found at an archeological site in Oxford. It is currently on display at the Ashmolean Museum.

Balluster Jug

Balluster jugs were used to decant liquids.  

This one was produced in Buckinghamshire between the late 12th and early 13th century.  

It is another example of Brill or Boarstallware.

More examples of baluster jugs:  

The baluster jug style was produced from the 12th century through the 15th century.

Early Medieval Oxfordware

This pear shaped jug was produced in the region to the northwest or west of Oxford in the 12th-early 13th century.  

It was used to store liquids.

13th-14th Century English Pottery

English pottery produced in the 13th and 14th centuries was similar in form to early pottery, but highly decorated.  

Jugs were used for decanting wine or ale.

The wide variety of jugs were often well decorated and many displayed a good sense of spatial design.

Three dimensional applied decoration was found on many items from this period.

White slip was sometimes found to cover the entire vessel and then concealed with green or mottled green glaze.

These colors gradually became more evident than the clear glazes associated with the Early medieval period.

Here are some examples of 13th century Brill or Boarstallware:

Balluster Jugs:

Conical or Pear Shaped Jugs:

Rounded or Shouldered Jugs:

Other Jugs from this period:

English pottery 1350-1500:

Jugs were used for storage and as decanters, and probably as drinking vessels.

Applied decoration was less popular than in the previous period.

Well-glazed mugs were new innovations as were cisterns with bung holes for decanting the liquid contents.  

Balluster type, conical, rounded, and shoulder jugs were produced during this period.

Examples of Brill or Boarstallware from 1350-1500:

Examples of Other English Pottery from the period:

French Pottery

Rouen Ware Jugs  

Made in Rouen, Normandy between 1170 and 1300.  

These jugs were often decorated with bands or pellets of clay.  

Beige, cream, and brown paints were used to paint stripes and other patterns.  

Saintonge Ware Jug

This colorful jug was made between 1275 and 1300 near Saintes, the capital of the Saintonge region in southwest France.

Other jugs from the same time and place feature images of plants or have abstract designs.

Some unusual examples even include three-dimensional human figures.

More examples of Saintonge pitchers:

German Pottery:

Rhenish Stoneware:

This baluster jug and drinking cup were produced in Siegburg, Rhineland in the 1500s.

 They are found throughout Northern Europe. They are similar in design to those produced in England.  

Stoneware, a specialty of medieval German potters, is a hard, nonporous ceramic.

As it is both strong and impervious to liquids, it was ideally suited for domestic purposes.

Bartmann Jug:

A Bartmann jug (from German Bartmann, "bearded man"), also called a Bellarmine jug,

is a type of decorated salt-glazed stoneware that was manufactured in Europe throughout the 16th and 17th centuries,

especially in the Cologne region in what is today western Germany.

The signature decorative detail was a bearded facemask appearing on the lower neck of the vessel.

They were made as jugs, bottles and pitchers in various sizes and for a multitude of uses,

including storage of food or drink, decanting wine and transporting goods.

This jug was made in Cologne around 1540.

A wide-mouthed stoneware vessel of this type would have been known to its German maker as a Krug,

a word that was applied to general-purpose mugs or jugs without any kind of pinched pouring lip.

In the 16th century, stoneware vessels designed specifically for pouring liquids had tall spouts,

like a modern coffee pot. It is therefore safe to assume that this particular pot was used for drinking beer.

Bartmann Jug:

More examples of Bartmann Jugs:

Works Cited

Kenneth James Barton (1965) Medieval Pottery at Rouen, Archaeological Journal, 

122:1, 73-85, DOI: 10.1080/00665983.1965.11077363

Dungworth, David. (2012). Dungworth, D 2012 ‘Three and a half centuries of bottle manufacture’.

Industrial Archaeology Review 34, 36–49. Industrial Archaeology Review. 34. 36-49

Zupko, Ronald E. (1985). "A Dictionary of Weights and Measures for the British Isles: The Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century, Volume 168". 

Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society. American Philosophical Society. 168. ISBN 9780871691682. Quoting Gras (1918), p. 706

Online sources and Photos

The British Museum:  https://www.britishmuseum.org

The Ashmolean Museum  http://potweb.ashmolean.org

The Metropolitan Museum of Art  https://www.metmuseum.org