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Caudle
PRACTICALLY Caudle, so called from the Latin “Calidus” hot, or the old French word "Chaudel," is a drink of warm ale made with groats, and given to the sick as a restorative support. It is more frequently composed of warm wine (or ale), mixed with bread, sugar, spices, and sometimes eggs; being administered specially to a woman in childbed (though with doubtful wisdom), and to her congratulatory visitors. "Hark ye, Master Hollytop! your wits are gone on wool-gathering: comfort yourself with a Caudle" (Sir Walter Scott's Abbot). For "tea Caudle, make a quart of strong green tea, and pour it out into a skillet (a longhandled metal pot), and set it over the fire; then beat up the yolks of four eggs, and mix with them a pint of white wine, a grated nutmeg, and sugar to taste; put all together; stir it over the fire till it is very hot, then drink it in china dishes." - Compleat Housewife, 1736. 66 When Harley (in the Man of Feeling, 1771) came downstairs to set out for London, he found his aunt in the parlour with a tear on her cheek, and her caudle cup in her hand; she knew enough of physic to prescribe against going abroad of a morning with an empty stomach: and she gave her blessing with the draught."
For old-fashioned brown Caudle: stir two tablespoonfuls of oatmeal into a pint of water, and add the thin rind of a lemon, a blade of mace, and a tablespoonful of brown sugar. Let all boil together: then strain the liquid, and add a pint of mild ale. Warm it for use. A little grated ginger is often put into this Caudle. The old-fashioned Caudle-pot was of glazed Delftware, holding about a quart, and having a small curved spout which went into the mouth of the drinker. Such a pot (now much sought after by collectors) is to be seen among the treasures at Lilford Hall, Northants. (
Two workable recipes sit inside this entry: a tea caudle from The Compleat Housewife (1736) and a brown oatmeal caudle. Both are thin, hot, spiced drinks rather than custards, and both stand or fall on heat control.
- The hinge: never let the egg mixture boilThe tea caudle is a stirred custard in disguise. Hold it below a simmer, stirring constantly, and pull it when it thickens very slightly and coats the spoon — around 170F. Above that the yolks scramble and no amount of whisking will bring them back.
- Imperial measuresThe 20 fl oz pint was only fixed by the Imperial Act of 1824; in 1736 English measures varied (a wine pint of about 16 fl oz, an ale pint nearer 20), so the volumes here are approximate. Taking the pint as 20 fl oz gives about 2.5 modern US cups, the quart about 5 cups. Scaling by US measures gives a slightly richer drink, which is no bad thing.
- "Skillet"The text glosses it as a long-handled metal pot; such pots commonly stood on short feet so they could sit over embers. A heavy saucepan is the equivalent; enamelled cast iron or stainless is better than bare aluminium with wine and lemon in the pot.
- Groats and oatmealGroats are hulled whole oats. The brown caudle's "two tablespoonfuls of oatmeal" means old-fashioned pinhead or rolled oats, not instant; the point is a starchy liquid that is then strained off, so the grain is a thickener rather than an ingredient you drink.
- Green tea in 1736The recipe wants the tea brewed strong. Modern green tea brewed hard turns bitter -- brew at about 175F for three minutes and use roughly double the usual leaf to get the strength intended.
- Mace and nutmegA blade of mace is one dried piece of the aril, roughly a quarter-teaspoon ground. Grate the nutmeg fresh; pre-ground loses most of its aromatics within months and the spice is doing much of the work here.
- The ale"Mild" ale originally meant young, unaged ale as opposed to kept or "stale" ale, and such ales were generally lightly hopped and faintly sweet rather than bitter. A modern mild, a brown ale or a lightly hopped English bitter suits it; anything aggressively hopped will clash with the lemon and sugar.
- YieldA quart of tea with a pint of wine and four yolks comes to about three pints; drunk in "china dishes," handleless bowls of four or five ounces, that is a dozen or so small servings rather than mugfuls. The brown caudle makes about four servings. Both are meant to be sipped hot and do not reheat well.
Caudle belongs to the long family of warm, thickened, spiced drinks — posset, sack whey, water gruel — that stood between food and medicine in English households from the medieval period until well into the nineteenth century. Its strongest association was with childbirth: the caudle cup, often a two-handled covered vessel of silver or delftware, was kept for the lying-in chamber, where the new mother and her visitors drank it in turn. Eliza Smith's The Compleat Housewife, quoted here, first appeared in 1727 and ran through many editions; it was also the first cookery book printed in America, at Williamsburg in 1742. The oatmeal version is the plainer, older thing — gruel with ale and sugar in it.