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Liqueurs (DURING the middle ages)

DURING the middle ages liqueurs were supposed to be medicinal remedies for universal use, but their modern employment is almost wholly for pleasing the palate. As such they follow substantial meals of meat and drink, pour la bonne bouche, so as to leave a pleasant impression on the gustatory nerves; therefore, they should never be of great alcoholic strength, but retaining a superb finesse of flavour, and being sweet enough to please ladies. Furthermore, by reason of the specific herbs, and aromatic essences, which go to flavour the different liqueurs, certain medicinal virtues attach themselves respectively to each of the best products, these liqueurs consisting mainly of spirit sweetened with cane sugar, the proportion of such ground work varying from thirty-three to fifty per cent.

It has been well said that these liqueurs are chiefly produced by the alchemist, and the convent. They are of three distinctive qualities. First come Ratafias, or simple liqueurs, in which the sugar, the alcohol, and the aromatic substances are in small quantities; for example, anise water, noyeau, the apricot, and cherry ratafias. But, through the practice of steeping macaroons of the bitter almond in spirit, and calling the result "ratafia," any liqueur of the bitter almond flavour now bears this designation. The name was got originally from the fact that some such a liqueur used to be drunk at the ratification of compacts, and bargains, as a glass or cordial comfort. At first, the housewife had only to infuse four ounces of sweet almonds, and the same quantity of bitter almonds, in a quart of British gin, together with a pound of loaf sugar. These ingredients were kept in a warm place, being mixed, and stirred frequently for a fortnight, then straining, and filtering into liqueur bottles. Of all the ratafias, Curacoa became facile princeps; the novels of eighty years ago were full of allusions thereto. We remember how the feeble Sir Francis Clavering drank this, and cried over it after breakfast, and how it disagreed with Major Pendennis because of the orange peel. Fauntleroy possessed the secret of concocting unequalled Curacoa, and when sentenced to death for forgery, took this secret with him to the scaffold. Curacoa is made in Amsterdam from the rind of bitter oranges which have been grown about the island of Curacoa, in the Dutch West Indies. The orange peel, with a little lemon, is steeped in pure spirit for some weeks, adding cinnamon, coriander seed, saffron, and sugar. Curaçao is the more proper spelling. Fermented cherries yield an excellent distilled spirit, cherrywater, kirschenwasser; if from a cherry called marasche, it is maraschino. A famous wild cherry-ratafia is still made at Grenoble, and a five-fruited ratafia at Hyères.

The second quality of liqueurs are those having the essential oils combined with more saccharine and spirituous matters, as anisette, and curaçoa (just mentioned). The third are the creams, or superfine liqueurs, as rosa solis, maraschino, Dantzic water, and others. Rosa solis was at one time much esteemed as a cordial, being made with spirits, and various essences, to wit, orangeflower, and cinnamon, etc. In the Fortunes of Nigel, chapter xxi, Sir Walter Scott has told of Dame Ursula "repeating, as the rich cordial trickled forth in a smooth oily stream, 'Right rosa solis as ever washed mulligrubs out of a moody brain. " Originally the Grande Chartreuse was prepared from a secret recipe which has been preserved for more than six hundred years, and was associated with mediæval religion. This elixir has become developed by the Carthusians into three varieties, the green, familiar to diners out, the yellow to doctors, and the white to valetudinarian dyspeptics. Chartreuse possesses the fragrance of garden herbs, the aromas of several spices, flowers, and nuts, together with the balsamic savour of young green tassels from pine trees. When made directly from bitter almonds, or with pounded kernels of apricots, or peaches, or with cherry laurel leaves, the liqueur is called Noyau. Danzig gold and silver wasser was first produced at Danzig, its peculiarity consisting in small particles of gold leaf, or silver leaf, swimming therein, but without imparting any particular flavour thereto. Benedictine is distilled at Fécamp, in Normandy, originally by the Benedictine monks, but now by a secular company. It resembles Chartreuse in flavour, as derived from the oils of angelica, hyssop, nutmeg and peppermint, whilst containing a large proportion of sugar. Vodka is a Russian liqueur, transparent, and colourless as water, but a fiery beverage for all that, prepared from rye, or potatoes. It has been defined as "distilled damnation," and must be taken at a draught, since to sip it is considered a proof of a future sojourn in the place of eternal torment. Maraschino is made by macerating a small sour Italian, or Dalmatian cherry, with the crushed stones thereof, and with ten per cent of honey added, the whole being fermented; it takes months to mature. Kimmel, or Kummel, is brandy flavoured with cumin, caraway, and coriander.

The particular medicinal properties (available for curative uses) of these several liqueurs reside in their flavouring herbs, and essences, with which they are respectively impregnated, and which are told about here under their different headings. 66