flipHipocrás das especiarias (spiced wine)
Hipocrás das especiarias (spiced wine)
Why this dish? This is Magellan's very dream in a cup. *Hipocrás* is a sweet wine perfumed with precious spices — cinnamon, ginger, and above all clove from the Moluccas, the spice he went to seek at the ends of the earth. Drinking this wine is tasting the treasure that financed and motivated the circumnavigation.
A red wine warmed with sugar and spices, filtered until clear. Sweet, warm, peppery with clove: the prestige drink of banquets, which puts in your mouth the exact fragrance of the coveted islands.
Bring your cup close, and inhale: this perfume is the one for which I risk ships and men. The clove comes from islands so distant that no Portuguese has yet gone there by the west — and I will open that route, by a *fidalgo*'s faith. At the tables of the great, one pours the wine over sugar and spices, passes it through a cloth sack until it is clear as ruby, and drinks to the glory of the Crown. Drink without fear, but with measure: this nectar heats the blood as much as ambition.
- •Red wine — a pint (base)
- •Honey or sugar — to taste (sweetness)
- •Cinnamon — one stick (warm spice)
- •Ginger — a piece (pungent spice)
- •Cloves from the Moluccas — a few (signature spice)
Hipocrás das especiarias (spiced wine)
A red wine warmed with sugar and spices, filtered until clear. Sweet, warm, peppery with clove: the prestige drink of banquets, which puts in your mouth the exact fragrance of the coveted islands.
Why this dish? This is Magellan's very dream in a cup. *Hipocrás* is a sweet wine perfumed with precious spices — cinnamon, ginger, and above all clove from the Moluccas, the spice he went to seek at the ends of the earth. Drinking this wine is tasting the treasure that financed and motivated the circumnavigation.
Bring your cup close, and inhale: this perfume is the one for which I risk ships and men. The clove comes from islands so distant that no Portuguese has yet gone there by the west — and I will open that route, by a *fidalgo*'s faith. At the tables of the great, one pours the wine over sugar and spices, passes it through a cloth sack until it is clear as ruby, and drinks to the glory of the Crown. Drink without fear, but with measure: this nectar heats the blood as much as ambition.
Ingredients (period version)
- Red wine — a pint (base)
- Honey or sugar — to taste (sweetness)
- Cinnamon — one stick (warm spice)
- Ginger — a piece (pungent spice)
- Cloves from the Moluccas — a few (signature spice)
Ingredients
- Full-bodied red wine — 750 ml (base)
- Sugar — 100 g (sweetness)
- Cinnamon stick — 1 (warm spice)
- Fresh ginger — 3 slices (pungent spice)
- Cloves — 5 (signature spice)
- Nutmeg — 1 pinch grated (Moluccan hint)
Method
- Pour the wine into a saucepan with the sugar and stir to dissolve, without boiling.
- Add cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg; heat gently (barely simmering) for 15 to 20 minutes.
- Let infuse off the heat for another 15 minutes to develop the aromas.
- Filter carefully through a fine cloth or coffee filter (the ancestor being the 'Hippocratic sleeve'), until clear.
- Serve warm in small cups. (Non-alcoholic version: replace wine with red grape juice.)
How it was made : Hippocras (*hipocrás*) was the most prized spiced drink of medieval and Renaissance Europe, filtered through a conical cloth bag called the 'Hippocratic sleeve'. Spices — clove, cinnamon, ginger — displayed the host's wealth. Clove was then worth a fortune, which explains the entire stake of Magellan's voyage.
The contemporary twist : Served chilled over a large ice cube with an orange zest, it becomes a 'navigator's spritz' that surprises in summer.
Sources : Le Viandier de Taillevent (tradition médiévale de l'hippocras)
Magellan · Charactorium
