Monday, July 26, 2010

MEDIEVAL MONDAY a recipe from The Trotula

I've started up my Medieval Monday posts on my blog to keep things ticking over while I work extra hard on the novel.

Today, I'm including a recipe from The Trotula, an 11thC medical compendium aimed at women most. This one is supposed to help with fevers and documents the use of sugar in medicines. This is almost one you could try at home today folks, but I'm not sure that it would do wonders for a high temperature. Might be good as a cough mixture or tonic though...

Oxizaccara - is so called from oxi, which is vinegar, and zucharo, 'sugar'. It is good for accute tertian fevers and pseudo-quartan fevers. It purges bile from the stomach. Take one pound of sugar, eight ounces of pomegranate juice, and four ounces of vinegar, and place in a tin vessel on the fire. And let it boil for a while, stirring constantly with a spatula, until it is reduced back to the quantity of the sugar; it should become so thick that it can be carried. Let one and a half ounces be given in the morning with warm water.

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