{{Short description|Drink of spiced, sweetened wine}} {{more citations needed|date=March 2013}} {{Infobox beverage | name = Hippocras | image = Ypocras.jpg | caption = Hippocrates's sleeve being used to make hippocras wine | type = Wine mixed with sugar and spices | abv = | proof = | manufacturer = | distributor = | origin = Roman Empire | introduced = | discontinued = | colour = | flavour = | ingredients = Wine, spices, sugar | variants = | related = | website = | region = }}
'''Hippocras'''<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hippocras |title=hippocras |publisher=Merriam-Webster}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=hippocras definition - Dictionary - MSN Encarta |url=http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/DictionaryResults.aspx?refid=1861618052 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090426111401/http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/DictionaryResults.aspx?refid=1861618052 |archive-date=2009-04-26 |url-status=dead }}</ref> sometimes spelled '''hipocras''' or '''hypocras''', is a drink made from wine mixed with sugar and spices, usually including cinnamon, and possibly heated. After steeping the spices in the sweetened wine for a day, the spices are strained out through a conical cloth filter bag called a ''manicum hippocraticum'' or Hippocratic sleeve (originally devised by the 5th century BC Greek physician Hippocrates to filter water), from which the name of the drink is derived.<ref name="The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets">{{cite book |last1=Goldstein |first1=Darra |title=The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199313617 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R1bCBwAAQBAJ&q=Hippocras |page=333}}</ref>
==History== Spiced wine was popular in the Roman Empire, as recorded in the writings of Pliny the Elder and Apicius. In the 12th century, a spiced wine named "pimen" or "piment" was mentioned by Chrétien de Troyes. During the 13th century, the city of Montpellier had a reputation for trading spiced wines with England. The first recipes for spiced wine appeared at the end of the 13th century (recipes for red wine and piment found in the ''Tractatus de Modo'') or at the beginning of the 14th century (recipe for piment in the ''Regimen sanitatis'' (Regiment de Sanitat) of Arnaldus de Villa Nova). Piment is also mentioned in ''The Miller's Tale'' by Geoffrey Chaucer.<ref>{{cite wikisource|Canterbury Tales (ed. Skeat)/Miller|Chaucer, Geoffrey}}</ref><ref>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Honey |volume=13 |page=654}} quote: "The ''clarre'', or ''piment'', of Chaucer’s time was wine mixed with honey and spices, and strained till clear; a similar drink was ''bracket'', made with wort of ale instead of wine."</ref> Since 1390, recipes for piment have also been called ''ipocras'' or ''ypocras'' (''Forme of Cury'' in England, ''Ménagier de Paris'' or ''Viandier'' de Taillevent in France), probably with reference and tribute to Hippocrates. In the Catalan cookbook ''Llibre del Coch'' (1520) the recipe is given as ''pimentes de clareya''.<ref>{{cite book |title=Libre del coch |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xO85L2pjvDgC&pg=PR1 |author=de Nola, Rupert |year=1568 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=xO85L2pjvDgC&pg=PR8 VIII] |publisher=Barcelona: Pau Cortey y Pedro Malo }}</ref> A honey sweetened variant of hippocras was known as ''clarry'' (Anglo-Norman: ''clarré'', ''claré'') and is mentioned in ''The Customs of London'' (16th c.) by Richard Arnold.<ref>{{cite book |title=Dictionary of Obsolete and Provincial English |url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofobso01wrigiala/page/n15/mode/2up |volume=1 |author=Wright, Thomas |year=1880 |page=[https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofobso01wrigiala/page/313/mode/1up 313] |publisher=London: G. Bell }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Customs of London, otherwise called Arnold's Chronicle 2d ed. |url=https://archive.org/details/customsoflondono00arno/page/n7/mode/2up |author=Arnold, Richard |year=1881 |page=[https://archive.org/details/customsoflondono00arno/page/188/mode/2up 188] |publisher=London: Printed for F. C. and J. Rivington }}</ref>
The drink became extremely popular, with a reputation as having various medicinal or even aphrodisiac properties.
In the 16th century, food was classified along two axes: cold or hot, dry or wet. People at that time believed in pursuing “balance” between these, for instance by stewing dry ingredients (like root vegetables) and roasting wet foods (like suckling pig). Wine was considered to be cold and dry, and so to this warm ingredients like sugar, ginger and cinnamon were added, creating ''hypocras''.<ref>{{Cite journal|last= Laudan|first= Rachel|title= Birth of the Modern Diet|url= https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/birth-of-the-modern-diet-2006-12/|journal= Scientific American|year= 2006|language= en|volume=16|issue=4|pages=4–11|doi= 10.1038/scientificamerican1206-4sp|url-access= subscription}}</ref>
Cookbooks and pharmacological manuals both provide recipes. This traditional recipe goes back to 1631: <blockquote> Take 10 lb. best Red wine or White wine, 1½ oz. cinnamon, 2 scruples cloves, 4 scruples of each cardamom and grains of paradise (''Aframomum melegueta''), 3 drams ginger. Crush the spices coarsely and steep in the wine for 3 or 4 hours. Add 1½ lb. whitest sugar. Pass through the sleeve several times, and it is ready.<ref name="The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets" /> </blockquote>
Since the 16th century, the word has been generally spelled ''hippocras'' or ''hipocras'' in English and {{lang | fr | hypocras}} in French. Original recipes for hippocras were made until the 19th century, when it fell out of favor. This wine is made with sugar and spices. Sugar then{{when?|date=October 2023}} was considered to be medicine and the spices varied according to the recipes. The main spices are: cinnamon, ginger, clove, grains of paradise and long pepper. An English manuscript specifies that sugar was uniquely for the lords and honey was for the people.<ref name="Renfrow">{{cite book |last1=Renfrow |first1=Cindy |title=A Sip Through Time |date=1995 |pages=238 |publisher=C. Renfrow |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=veAgAQAAIAAJ |isbn=9780962859830}}</ref> Since the 17th century, spiced wines, in France, have been generally prepared with fruits (apples, oranges, almonds) and with musk or ambergris. In England, in 1732, there was a recipe for red hippocras containing milk and brandy.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Compleat City and Country Cook |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yYYEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PR1 |author=Carter, Charles |year=1732 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=yYYEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA217 217]-218 |publisher=London: A. Bettesworth and C. Hitch }}</ref> The drink was well liked during medieval and Elizabethan times. Moreover, doctors prescribed it to aid digestion. It was served at most banquets all over Europe.
The drink was highly prized during the high and late Middle Ages. In France, it has been noted as the favorite drink of notorious baron Gilles de Rais ({{circa}} 1405 – 1440), who reportedly drank several bottles every day and had his victims drink it prior to assault. Later, King Louis XIV ({{reign | 1643 | 1715}}) was also known to enjoy it. In those times, the drink was a highly valued gift-item, in the same vein as jam and fruit preserves. Hippocras fell out of fashion and was forgotten during the 18th century.
In France, {{lang | fr | hypocras}} is still produced in the Ariège and Haute Loire areas, though in very small quantities.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://hypocrasdesvieillesterres.com/presentation-de-la-cave.html|lang= fr|title= Accueil boutique / NOTRE CAVE|quote= ''Today, Frédéric Bayer has taken over from his father. We are based in St Germain Laprade (in Haute-Loire, 7 km from Puy en Velay) and we are always faithful to our original recipes''|access-date= 2021-11-02|archive-date= 2023-12-05|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20231205175113/https://hypocrasdesvieillesterres.com/presentation-de-la-cave.html|url-status= dead}}</ref>
Since 1996 the population of Basel have revived the New Year's morning celebration of the so-called {{lang | gsw | Aadringgede}} (a drinking cheer). The Dreizack-fountain in Freiestrasse is filled with hippocras, spelled {{lang | gsw | Hypokras}} in the local Swiss-German dialect. In Basel it is a tradition in winter to drink {{lang | gsw | Hypokras}} and eat Basler Läggerli (biscuits) with it.
The drink may have eventually inspired the Spaniards in their 18th-century development of sangria. While sweeter than hippocras, sangria is still often made with spices, including cinnamon, ginger, and pepper.
==See also== * Ancient Greece and wine * Conditum * Mulled wine * Culinary Heritage of Switzerland
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== *{{OED|hypocras}}
==External links== * {{cite EB1911|wstitle=Hippocras}} * [https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofobso02wrigiala/page/743/mode/1up 15th-cent. piment recipe] in Wright's ''Dictionary of Obsolete and Provincial English'' (1886) * [https://books.google.de/books?id=AmdWAAAAcAAJ&hl=de&pg=PA81#v=onepage&q&f=false ''De la Clairette ou Pigment.''] in ''Le Thresor de santé'' (1607) by Jean Huguetan. French recipes for honey sweetened spiced wines. The previous chapter ''Des Vins aromatiques, ou Hypocras'' deals with hippocras recipes sweetened with sugar.
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Category:Ancient wine Category:Swiss wine Category:Medieval wine Category:Culinary Heritage of Switzerland