Hypocras

Origin: France      Period: Medieval

Original Recipe

To make powdered hypocras (Le Mènagier de Paris)

To make a lot of good hypocras, take an once of cinamonde, known as a long tube cinnamon, a knob of ginger, and an equal amount of galangal, pounded well together, and then take a livre of good sugar; pound this all together and moisten it with a gallon of the best Beaune wine you can get, and let it steep for an hour or two. Then strain it through a clot bag several times so it will be very clear.

Modern Redaction

Ingredients:

2.2l (three bottles) of decent red wine
170g sugar (a brown cane sugar is best)
1 tbsp grated ginger
4 cinnamon sticks mashed in a pestle and mortar
12 cloves
1 tbsp galingale
½ tsp each of cardamom, nutmeg, mace, long pepper (substitute whole black peppercorns if not available) and grains of paradise

Method:

Preparation

Pour the wine into a large pan and gently heat until it is just at the point of boiling. Add all the other ingredients and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Reduce the heat and keep stirring for a few minutes before turning off the heat and allowing the mixture to cool.

Once the mixture has cooled, strain through a muslin cloth to remove the excess spices (one recipe tells you to save the spice mixture so that it can be added to your next stew).

Hypocras (or Ypocras as it was also known) was used as an aperitif, served either warm or cold with wafers, sweetmeats and comfits just before the main meal. Red wine gives you a pungent mixture. A lighter Ypocras can be made using a dry white wine (like a Sancerre) instead of red wine.

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