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Compound Distilled Waters (General Rules)
General Rules for the Distillation of Spirituous Waters. 1. The plants and their parts ought to be moderately and newly dried, except such as are ordered to be fresh gathered. 2. After the ingredients have been steeped in water as will be sufficient to prevent a burnt the spirit for the time preseribed, add as much time prescribed, add as much flavor, or rather more. tillation is by some kept by itself, under the title of spirit; and the other runnings, which prove milky, are fined down by art. But it is preferable to mix all the runnings together, without fining them, that the waters may possess the virtues of the plant entire. 3. The liquor which comes over first in the dis- 4. In the distillation of these waters, the genuine brandy obtained from wine is directed, Take 2 lbs. of orange-flowers, and 24 qts. of water, and draw over 3 pts. Or, take 12 lbs. of range-flowers, and 16 qts. of water, and draw | Where this is not to be procured take, instead of over 15 qts.
Orange-peel Water.
Take of the outward yellow rind of Seville oranges, 4 oz.; water, 34 galls.; draw off 1 gall. by the alembic, with a brisk fire.
Peppermint Water.
Take of the herb of peppermint, dried, 1½ lbs.; water, as much as is sufficient to prevent burning.
Distill off a gallon. This has been known to allay sickness when nothing else would succeed, and is that proof spirit, half its quantity of a well-rectified spirit, prepared from any other fermented liquors. In this steep the ingredients, and then quantity ordered to be drawn off, and to prevent add spring-water enough both to make up the burning.
Bergamot Water. gall. of highly rectified spirit of wine, and 1 gall. Take of fine old French brandy 2 galls., or 1 of spring-water. Put to the brandy, or diluted spirits 1/2 oz., or more, of true Roman oil of berga-
This is a set of workshop rules for the still, not a kitchen procedure, and it cannot be followed today. The points below explain the specific problems, and note the state of the text itself.
- The text is scrambledThis page has been badly jumbled in transcription: rule 3 appears before rule 4, the orange-flower water quantities are interrupted mid-sentence, and the bergamot entry runs into the general rules. Any figure read off it should be treated as unreliable.
- Distilling spirits is the barrierRules 2 and 4 describe steeping botanicals in brandy or proof spirit and drawing the alcohol over an alembic. Operating a still to separate alcohol is a licensed activity in the United States, the United Kingdom and most other jurisdictions, regardless of scale or intent.
- Fore-shots and cutsRule 3 notes that some distillers keep the first runnings separately as 'spirit', and recommends instead mixing all the runnings together without fining. Modern practice in spirit distilling discards the heads, since the earliest fraction concentrates the most volatile congeners; a book of this date had no analytical means of judging what was in them.
- Alcohol vapour and open fireOrange-peel water is to be drawn off 'by the alembic, with a brisk fire', that is, direct flame under the vessel. Where the general rules' brandy or proof spirit is used as the base, that means heating alcohol over a naked fire, and vapour escaping a poorly luted joint can ignite.
- Oil of bergamotThe bergamot water calls for "true Roman oil of bergamot" by the ounce into two gallons. Expressed bergamot oil contains bergapten and is strongly phototoxic on skin at low concentrations; it is not an ingredient to handle by the ounce at home.
- Vanished measures and materialsFor reading only: British proof spirit is about 57 per cent alcohol by volume (US proof spirit about 50), rectified spirit of wine much stronger; an alembic is a pot still with a head and condensing arm; and the gallons are Imperial where the book is following British pharmacopoeial practice.
- If you want the flavourPeppermint water, orange-flower water and orange-peel water are all sold ready made, and the flower waters are produced commercially by steam distillation without alcohol. Use a current recipe or a bought bottle.
Compound distilled waters sat on the boundary between the still-room and the apothecary's shop, which is why Mackenzie's Ten Thousand Receipts carries them alongside cookery, dyeing and varnish-making. Aromatic waters of this kind were standard pharmacopoeial preparations through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: the plant was macerated in dilute spirit and distilled so that its volatile oils came over with the alcohol and water, giving a clear, keeping preparation with a definite dose. The claim here that peppermint water "has been known to allay sickness when nothing else would succeed" reflects its long-standing use as a carminative, and peppermint water survived in official pharmacopoeias well into the twentieth century as a vehicle for other medicines. Orange-flower and orange-peel waters crossed over into confectionery and remain kitchen ingredients.