A Medieval Aromatic Wine: Hippocras

During the Christmas holidays, the city administration organizes a market in the main square of my city, made up of many prefabricated wooden houses, where they sell toys, handicrafts, chocolate and sweets and many other food products. In one of these stands I bought a bottle of flavored wine, which I had never heard of: hippocras.

Given my innate curiosity, I immediately went to look for its history and the related recipe, to understand if it was easily reproducible.

The original recipe says that in a pottle of wine you need to add:

1. One ounce of cinnamon
2. One ounce of ginger
3. One ounce of nutmeg
4. A quarter of an ounce of cloves
5. Seven peppercorns
6. A handful of rosemary flowers
7. Two pounds of sugar.

Let's start with the history.

Hippocras, also known as ypocras, hypocras, ipocras, and other similar names, is a sweet spiced wine that was very popular in Europe during the medieval period. Some unreliable sources attribute its name, and its invention, to the famous Greek physician Hippocrates. But this is certainly not true. What is certain is that in Roman times the wine that was produced was certainly not of high quality and, to cover its flavor deficiencies, herbs and honey were added.

In more recent times (between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries) the technique of adding medicinal herbs to wine allowed its use for therapeutic purposes. And it is to this period that, in France, Great Britain as well as Catalonia, the first recipes of Hippocras date back. Among these I have chosen one and slightly modified it according to my personal tastes.

I decided to use the recipe "To make Ipocras" from "The accomplish cook, or The art and mystery of cookery" by Robert May, a very popular cookbook first published in London in 1660, found on the internet.

We have to consider that the quality of the wine consumed in that period was certainly not like today's, but much lower, very poor. I personally believe it did not even have a very high alcohol content since it was drunk in exaggerated quantities. It also had to have a fairly sour taste, given the large amount of sugar (in some cases honey) that was added. Since you try to enhance the aromatic taste more and less the alcohol content, I believe that a good wine of about 12.5 degrees is fine.

I used a full-bodied and robust Sicilian wine: an excellent Nero d'Avola of 13.5 degrees.

Since it is very difficult to find wine for sale today in a 2.27-liter container (the pottle), but it is very easy to find 0.75-liter ones (the standard bottle), let's try to correctly relate the ingredients.

You can immediately see that the ratio between the original container and today's bottle is exactly one to 3 (3 x 0.75 = 2.25). Therefore, you simply need to divide each ingredient of the original recipe by three. The other way is to use three bottles of wine, without changing anything.

Let's see how to proceed:

1. One ounce of ground cinnamon 28g / 3 = 9.3g or about a little more than a teaspoon.
2. One ounce of ground ginger 28g / 3 = 9.3g or about a little more than a teaspoon.
3. One ounce of ground nutmeg 28g / 3 = 9.3g or about a little more than a teaspoon.

I am not a fan of half measures so I will use just a teaspoon of each except for the ginger which I will use two teaspoons.

As for the cloves and peppercorns, I find it very difficult to divide the quantity included in the recipe by three. For this reason I will use a teaspoon of cloves and a teaspoon of peppercorns. Remember that everything that is not in powder form must be reduced to a powder or ground quite finely. I crushed the pepper and cloves with a meat tenderizer.

Let's start by pouring the bottle of wine into a large, resealable carafe. Add the teaspoons of cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg to the wine and finally the cloves and pepper. Also insert two/three small sprigs of previously washed rosemary into the carafe and possibly with the flowers, and that's it.

Wait a moment... we are missing the sugar.

The amount of sugar depends a lot on personal taste and the type of wine you will use. I tried adding the amount as per the recipe (2 pounds = 900g divided by 3 = 300g), but also 200g and 100g. My personal taste is around 150g. You can still put 100g initially and, if it seems not enough to you, add more according to your taste. You can use honey instead of sugar, adding half the sugar dose.

Now just pour the sugar into the carafe, close it and let it macerate, or rather, flavor everything for at least a whole day. After that you will need to decant the wine, using a funnel inside which you should place some fine cheesecloth, into bottles with an airtight seal and leave it in a cool place. The wine, in this way, will be preserved for a month.

Now you can enjoy your Hippocras. I prefer it warm, heated as if it were sake, to help release all the aromas it contains. Excellent if consumed at the end of a meal as a digestive… Cheers!

If, on the other hand, you prefer a sip of fresh Limoncello, the famous Italian lemon liquor, why don't you try to do it by yourself following my other tutorial: Italian homemade Limoncello?

GOVERNMENT WARNING:

(1) According to the Surgeon General, women should not drink alcoholic beverages during pregnancy because of the risk of birth defects.

(2) Consumption of alcoholic beverages impairs your ability to drive a car or operate machinery, and may cause health problems.