Atholl Brose

Atholl Brose

It was very common to mix whisky with honey in the past and equally common to mix liquid with oatmeal. Bringing the two together in this potent way is credited to a Duke of Atholl during a Highland rebellion in 1475, who is said to have foiled his enemies by filling the well which they normally drank from with this ambrosial mixture, which so intoxicated them that they were easily taken.

Some traditional recipes leave in the whole oatmeal while this one, reputed to have come from a Duke of Atholl, uses only the strained liquid from steeping the oatmeal in water.

6 oz / 175 g medium otameal (1-1/2 c)
4 tablespoons heather honey
1-1/2 pt / 3/4 L whisky (3-3/4 c)
3/4 pt / 450 ml water (2 c)

Put the oatmeal into a bowl and add the water. Leave for about an hour. Put into fine sieve and press all the liquid through. (Use the remaining oatmeal for putting into bread or making porridge - see p. 26). Add honey to the sieved liquid and mix well. Pour into a large bottle and fill up with the whisky. Shake well before use.

Uses

May be drunk as a liqueur; is often served at festive celebrations such as New Year, or may be mixed with stiffly whipped cream and served with shortbread as a sweet.

(*Scottish Cookery*, by Catherine Brown.  
Copyright 1989 Catherine Brown.
Reprinted 1990, Richard Drew Publishing Ltd, Glasgow.)

from

http://merryrose.atlantia.sca.org/archive/1996-12dec/msg00249.html

as posted by
James and/or Nancy Gilly
Date: Thu, 12 Dec 1996 21:32:41 +0000

Easy Atholl Brose

Sabha´s Atholl Brose: Using Brogan´s Easy Atholl Brose recipe

Here is a easier version of Atholl Brose. It’s tasty, warming and guaranteed ta please!

1 lbs oatmeal
1 lbs honey
1 magnum size cheap whisky

Place all ingredients in a gallon jug and seal with the cap. Let stand 4 to 7 days shaking contents periodically. Place a colander over a pitcher and empty the previously shaken contents of the gallon jug into it. Bottle in sanitized beer or wine bottles. Shake well before serving. Slancha!!

In service,
~Brogan

Iron Age Beer

Here's what an Iron Age beer tastes like

from Sify.com on 2011-01-16 16:30:00

An archeobotanist has discovered a 2550 year-old recipe for ancient Celtic malt beverage.

Hans-Peter Stika of the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart has been spending time at ancient Celtic sites, figuring out how the local groups made their beer, reports Science News.

He said that six specially constructed early Celtic ditches, previously excavated at Eberdingen-Hochdorf, a 2,550-year-old settlement in Germany, were used to make high-quality barley malt, a key beer ingredient.

Thousands of charred barley grains unearthed in the ditches about a decade ago came from a large malt-making enterprise.

The researcher bases that conclusion on a close resemblance of the ancient grains to barley malt that he made by reproducing several methods that Iron Age folk might have used.

He also compared the ancient grains to malt produced in modern facilities. Upon confirming the presence of malt at the Celtic site, Stika reconstructed malt-making techniques there to determine how they must have affected beer taste.

At the Celtic site, barley was soaked in the specially constructed ditches until it sprouted, said Stika.

Grains were then dried by lighting fires at the ends of the ditches, giving the malt a smoky taste and a darkened color. Lactic acid bacteria stimulated by slow drying of soaked grains added sourness to the brew.

According to Stika, unlike modern beers, the Eberdingen-Hochdorf brew probably contained spices such as mugwort, carrot seeds or henbane.

Excavations at the Celtic site have yielded a few seeds of henbane, a plant that also makes beer more intoxicating.

"These additives gave Celtic beer a completely different taste than what we're used to today," said Stika.

Heated stones placed in liquefied malt during the brewing process - a common practice later in Europe - would have added a caramelised flavour to this fermented Celtic drink, he added.

Stika suspected that fermentation was triggered by using yeast-coated brewing equipment or by adding honey or fruit, which both contain wild yeasts.

Celts consisted of Iron Age tribes, loosely tied by language and culture, that inhabited much of Western Europe from about the 11th to the first century B.C.

Classics professor Max Nelson of the University of Windsor in Canada, an authority on ancient beer, largely agrees with Stika's conclusions.

According to him, other stages of brewing occurred either at the site, as suggested by Stika, or nearby.

"Stika's experiments go a long way toward showing how precisely barley was malted in ancient times," he said.

Beer buffs today would regard Celtic beer as a strange brew not only for its flavour but because it would have been cloudy, contained yeasty sediment and been imbibed at room temperature, he added.

The study is published online in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. (ANI)

Limonadas

This is a non-alcoholic period drink syrup recipe which will store indefinitely without refrigeration.

Limonadas
"Limonadas" is the the early predecessor to lemonade.

Recipe: Boil together equal amounts of lemon juice (bottled is fine) and sugar until it thickens to the consistency of warm maple syrup. Store when cool.The beverage can be made hot or cold as circumstances dictate, just put a spoon or two of the syrup in your drinking vessel and dilute to taste with water. (Source: Margo Lynn Hablutzel / SCA-ARTS mailing list)

Mead recipes

There were a lot of good recipes for mead posted to the yahoo list last month, and I wanted to archive them in the Recipe Book. I will be moving over some of the posts from Yahoo and setting the author as the original author. If you see something missing or incorrect, feel free to add it or ask for it to be corrected.

Sekanjabin

This is a non-alcoholic period drink syrup recipe which will store indefinitely without refrigeration.

Sekanjabin
"Sekanjabin" is more commonly refered to as Persian mint water.
Recipe: Boil together equal amounts of vinegar (any type including white, red, or cider), and sugar until it thickens to the consistency of warm maple syrup. Meanwhile, take a bunch of fresh mint (you can buy mint extract in the supermarket if you can't find the real thing), rinse it well in water, and tie it in cheesecloth (you can omit the cheesecloth if you don't mind leaves floating in your drinks). Turn off the heat under the
syrup and drop in the bunch of mint. When it's all cooled, take out the mint, squeezing it well, and store the resulting syrup. To use, dilute with water to taste (from about five to one, up to ten to one). (Source: Caitlin Cheannlaidir / SCA-ARTS mailing list)

Pottage for a crowd

This is how the Pottage was prepared for Samhain 2007

1 1/2 medium to large heads (about the size of a small child's head) cabbage, shredded
1 package frozen chopped spinach
3 oz powdered beef bullion (or roughly 3/4 of a 4 ounce jar)
1 stick salted butter
1 42 ounce package Quaker Instant (1 minute) oats.
about 6 -8 quarts water

Combine the cabbage, spinach, bullion, butter and water in a cauldron and heat to boiling. Stir in the oatmeal and realize there was probably too much water to start with. Keep the pottage on the fire and find someone to stir as some water boils off until it looks right (thanks Colin).

In the future I would try to cut back the water a bit more to just a bit under the recommended amount on the package and add more if needed at the end.

Sabha's Apple Walnut Tart

Pastry:
1 ¼ Cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup (½ stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into pats
¼ cup chilled solid vegetable shortening
3 to 4 tablespoons cold water

Prepare Pastry:
1. Combine flour and salt in medium-sized bowl. Cut in butter and shortening with pastry blender until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle cold water, 1 tablespoon at a time. Over mixture, tossing lightly with fork after each addition, until pastry is just moist enough to hold together. Shape pastry into disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill 1 hour or until firm.

2. Preheat oven to hot (400°)

3. Roll pastry out on lightly floured surface with lightly floured rolling pin into a 13 inch circle. Fit into 11 inch tart pan with removable bottom. Fold over-hang over and press to reinforce side of tart. Line pastry with aluminum foil. Fill with pie weights or dried beans.

4. Bake tart shell in preheated over (400°) for 15 minutes. Remove foil and weights. Bake 5 to 10 minutes to brown.

Filling:
1 ¼ cup walnuts
¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon almond extract
¼ teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons (¾ stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

3 tart green apples, peeled, quartered, cored, cut into 1/8-inch-thick wedges
¼ cup honey

For Filling:

1. Combine walnuts, ¾ cup sugar, eggs, 1 tablespoon water, extracts and salt in food processor. Blend until soft paste forms. Add 4 tablespoons butter; blend 10 seconds. Spread in crust. Chill until firm, about 45 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, stir apples, 1 tablespoon water and 1 tablespoon sugar in a large bowl. Let stand for 30 minutes.

3. Preheat oven to 400°F. Drain apples; overlap in concentric circles atop filling. Melt 2 tablespoons butter; brush over apples. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon sugar.

4. Cover exposed areas of crust with foil to prevent excessive browning. Bake tart 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350°F. Bake until apples are tender, about 45 minutes. Transfer to rack. Heat honey in a microwave about 15 – 30 seconds until thin. Brush over apples. Cool. (Can be made 8 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature).

My Notes:

The original recipe called for almonds in place of the walnuts, brandy in place of the water and a shell which was more cake-like. I made the modifications originally because I didn’t have some of those ingredients and I think it worked out fine. The original is a “French Apple-Almond Tart” from Bon Appétit October 1997. I have since tried almonds and substituted McIntosh apples successfully. Once I mistakenly omitted the eggs from the nut filling and I personally like the filling better that way (delicious for spreading on breads and stuff – which I wouldn’t do with the raw eggs). The eggs seem to puff up the filling a bit during cooking and the apples adhere better when the eggs are included. This is recipe takes a long time to prepare – I think my record is about 3 hours from start to finish, but it isn’t all work time.