Carrick's Stepponi
From EastKingdomWiki
| Full Recipe Name | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stepponi | ||||||
| Recipe Source | ||||||
| The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Knight Opened | ||||||
| Brewer | ||||||
| Carrick MacSeain | ||||||
| Panel Information | ||||||
| ||||||
| Beverage Information | ||||||
|
Original Recipe
Related category: Authenticity, Exploration
TO MAKE STEPPONI
Take a Gallon of Conduit-water, one pound of blew Raisins of the Sun stoned, and half a pound of Sugar.
Squeese the juyce of two Limons upon the Raisins and Sugar, and slice the rindes upon them.
Boil the water, and pour it so hot upon the ingredients in an earthen pot, and stir them well together.
So let it stand twenty four hours. Then put it into bottles (having first let it run through a strainer) and set them in a Cellar or other cool place.
In my words: Redaction Related category: Authenticity.
Gallon of Conduit-water - I used water from a local spring. I am using the wine gallon as the measure here. (124.16 oz)
one pound of blew Raisins of the Sun stoned, My interpretation here is that the raisins were soaked for some time so that they swelled up.
half a pound of Sugar.
Squeese the juyce of two Limons upon the Raisins and Sugar, and slice the rindes upon them. Boil the water, and pour it so hot upon the ingredients in an earthen pot, and stir them well together. So let it stand twenty four hours. Then put it into bottles (having first let it run through a strainer) and set them in a Cellar or other cool place.
For the earthen pot, I used a ceramic bean pot.
Measurement Conversions
1 Gallon* local spring water (124.16 oz)
1 pound sun dried raisins, soaked and deseeded (stoned) (Deseeded raisins will be basically smashed up a bit)
½ pound sugar
2 lemons
Boil the water Juice the lemons, saving the rinds. Slice the rinds of the lemons In an earthen pot, add the sugar, raisins, and the juice and rinds of the lemons. Pour the boiling water over the fruit and sugar mixture. Stir well. Cover and let stand 24 hours Strain and bottle. Store in a cool dry place.
Period equipment Related category: Complexity, Exploration
- Earthen pot – A ceramic bean pot was used instead of an unglazed pot.
- A period knife was used to slice the lemons and chop the raisins.
- The liquid was strained through gauze weight linen.
Additional Information Related category: Authenticity, Exploration
MEDIEVAL MEASUREMENTS
Dry Measures 1 Sextarius = 1 Sester = 1 Sema = 1 Quarter = 1 Seam = 8 Bushels 1 Bushel = 1 Sceppe = 4 Quartalium = 4 Pecks 1 Peck = 2 Gallons (dry) = 8 Quarts (dry) = 16 Pints (dry) = 32 Ounces (dry)
A “gallon” of Water “In the British Isles a major problem adding to metrological proliferation was that the same measuring units had different standards in England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. Chief among these units were the acre, pint, ell, furlong, gallon, mile, and tun; all immensely popular measures. As seen earlier in another context, those of Scotland were often double, triple, or quadruple the size of their English equivalents, while those of Ireland were usually slightly smaller.” (Zupko) Trying to determine what exactly is a “gallon” or a “pint” is tricky. In this case we went with a gallon of water being the same as a gallon of ale in period. That is, “in England and later Great Britain, at least as early as 15ᵗʰ century – 1824, a unit of liquid capacity used for ale, = 282 cubic inches.” (Crouch)
A modern gallon is 231 cubic inches. So a medieval gallon (ale) is 282/231 or 1.22 modern gallons, or about 5 quarts/4.75 litres.
What’s a “peck”?
“Thus I conclude that the bushel of malt would contain 38.1 pounds of malted barley, which means that the quarter of malt contains 304.8 pounds.” (Olsen). Therefore a peck, being ¼ of a bushel, equals 38.1/4 or 9½ modern pounds.
Water Hardness
As mentioned, the hardness of the water in the British Isles varies.The geography of southern England is mostly chalk. Water that is classified as hard to very hard has over 200 PPM. Many areas in the South East of England, including London and Suffolk have water that is this hard.
The TDS of our local spring water is 395 and has a pH of 5.6.
Bibliography and Glossary
Related category: Exploration
Glossary
stoned - deseeded
blew - Old English blāwan, of Germanic origin; related to German blähen ‘blow up, swell’, from an Indo-European root shared by Latin flare ‘blow’.
Bibliography
Digby, Kenelm, The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Knight Opened, The Gutenberg Project, Anne MacDonell(editor)Release Date: August 5, 2005 [EBook #16441]
The Old Foodie: Raisins of all sorts. AGRUMED: Archaeology and history of citrus fruit in the Mediterranean - The history of Citrus in the Low Countries during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age - Publications du Centre Jean Bérard
John Ward, The Young Mathematician's Guide (12th edition, 1771; ed. pr. 1707). [Per Miss F. A. Yeldham.]
Gleanings Far and Near. (1935). The Mathematical Gazette, 19(236), 340–354. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3606322
Wybard, J. “Setting Forth the Quantities of the Wine and Ale-gallons.” From Tactometria... London: Robert Leybourn. 1650. Web. PDF. Accessed 19 May 2911. <http://www.sizes.com/library/British_law/Wybard1650.pdf>. D. Y. DeLyser, & W. J. Kasper. (1994). Hopped Beer: The Case for Cultivation. Economic Botany, 48(2), 166–170. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4255609 Olsen, Peter. On the Quarter of Malt and the Hogshead of Beer - Self-published, 2012 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1p6K3vqx2S-9rMioKimfab4kcURiFbKoX1RCuMIHr7jM/edit
EKBG Panel Categories Defined
- Documentation (15 pts): The extent to which the entrant demonstrates knowledge of the beverage's creation and history in the Middle Ages/Renaissance.
- Authenticity (15 pts): The extent to which the beverage is representative of a Middle Age/Renaissance beverage.
- Complexity (15 pts): The involvement of the procedures that the brewer has undertaken in an effort to simulate the processes used in Middle Age/Renaissance brewing. The level of difficulty of the process used in the creation of the entry.
- Exploration (15 pts): The degree to which the artisan digs into and investigates the example(s) that inspires their work in order to develop their process.
- Workmanship (30 pts): The extent to which the entry matches what we know of the characters of the beverage or style
- Aesthetics (10 pts): The extent to which the entry is presented appropriately and pleasantly, and the drinkability of the beverage itself.