flipHypocras Northern Style (Spiced Wine with Honey)
Hypocras Northern Style (Spiced Wine with Honey)
Why this dish? Wine flowed at William's royal table, and spiced wine sweetened with honey was the beverage of great medieval occasions. A warm cup to celebrate a victory or seal an alliance between Normandy and England.
A wine warmed with ginger, cinnamon and cloves, sweetened with honey — the medieval ancestor of mulled wine, served at the end of the feast to aid digestion and warm hearts.
Raise your cup with me. When the feast drew to a close, we served wine adorned with spices from afar and sweetened with honey — a luxury that spoke of the house's power. Ginger and cinnamon warm the blood, and they were said to help the stomach after so much meat. Drink it without excess, for a drunken man keeps neither his duchy nor his crown.
- •Red wine — a pitcher (base)
- •Honey — as desired (sweetness)
- •Ginger — a piece (signature spice)
- •Cinnamon — a stick (spice)
- •Clove — a few (spice)
- •Grains of paradise or long pepper — a pinch (medieval hot spice)
Hypocras Northern Style (Spiced Wine with Honey)
A wine warmed with ginger, cinnamon and cloves, sweetened with honey — the medieval ancestor of mulled wine, served at the end of the feast to aid digestion and warm hearts.
Why this dish? Wine flowed at William's royal table, and spiced wine sweetened with honey was the beverage of great medieval occasions. A warm cup to celebrate a victory or seal an alliance between Normandy and England.
Raise your cup with me. When the feast drew to a close, we served wine adorned with spices from afar and sweetened with honey — a luxury that spoke of the house's power. Ginger and cinnamon warm the blood, and they were said to help the stomach after so much meat. Drink it without excess, for a drunken man keeps neither his duchy nor his crown.
Ingredients (period version)
- Red wine — a pitcher (base)
- Honey — as desired (sweetness)
- Ginger — a piece (signature spice)
- Cinnamon — a stick (spice)
- Clove — a few (spice)
- Grains of paradise or long pepper — a pinch (medieval hot spice)
Ingredients
- Full-bodied red wine — 75 cl (base)
- Honey — 4 tbsp (sweetness)
- Fresh ginger — 3 slices (spice)
- Cinnamon — 1 stick (spice)
- Cloves — 3 (spice)
- Long pepper or black pepper — 1 pinch (spice)
Method
- Pour the wine into a saucepan with the honey.
- Add the ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and pepper.
- Heat gently without boiling, 15 minutes at a low simmer.
- Strain to remove the spices.
- Serve warm in cups or goblets.
How it was made : Hypocras (sweetened and spiced wine filtered through a ‘Hippocrates sleeve’, a cloth bag) was served at the end of the meal for its supposed digestive properties. The spices, imported at great cost along trade routes, made it a prestige drink reserved for the powerful.
The contemporary twist : Serve in stoneware mugs with a strip of dried orange peel — a ‘Conqueror's mulled wine’ for winter evenings.
William the Conqueror · Charactorium
