Hippocrasus
What to drink at Christmas this year?
In addition to the usual drinks, how about trying one that was furious during the Christmas holidays in medieval times ?
Below you will find the recipe to prepare Hippocras, or spiced wine , directly from the blog sguardosulmedioevo.org.
Spiced red wine according to the medieval recipe
Ingredients for hippocras or medieval spiced wine
For about 1 liter:
1 liter of full-bodied red wine "MERLOT"
1 tablespoon of honey
1 teaspoon of ginger powder
1 tablespoon of sugar
4 cloves
1 teaspoon of galangal (available in herbal medicine)
1 teaspoon of vanilla
a pinch of iris root (available in herbal medicine)
(* 1 teaspoon of pepper in grains)
8 pods of Cardamom (in herbal medicine)
1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder
Preparation
Pound the whole spices in a mortar.
Pour the wine, honey and all the spices into an airtight container and leave to rest for 24 hours.
Strain with gauze twice to obtain a clear product, and enjoy fresh.
Advice
The wine can be drunk hot, otherwise it should be bottled, sealed and stored for about a month.
Once opened, it should be kept cool.
The wine to use is mainly red but in the summer, white can also be used since it is certainly less full-bodied and therefore more pleasant to drink, perhaps fresh.
A Pinot can be used Gray.
The quality of the wine is very important since the success of the final product depends on it.
Trebbiano can be used or the Malvasia.
There are variations of the recipe, for example with the addition of pieces of orange peel , which makes the compound even more aromatic and gives a notable opening in the taste ( Article taken from:sguardosulmedioevo.org).