TAke a quart of faire water put thereto fiue or six spoonfuls of good Aqua composita which is strong of the Annis seedes and one ounce of Sugar and a branch of Rosemary brew them a prety while out of one pot into another and then is your drinke prepared Or if you leaue out sugar it wil bee pleasing enough I haue beene crediblie informed that diuers Gentlemen of good credit when they trauail abroad and cannot like the taste or relishe of theyr drinke that they vse no other then the aforsaid composition and find the same both to refresh and coole them very well neither are they troubled with the rawnesse of cold water by reason that it hath receiued some correction by the Aqua composita that the Annis seedes doe giue a delicate taste vnto it It were not amisse for all Seaman to cary some store of Aquauitae with them that when their wine Cider Perry and beer are spent they may transmute theyr water into the saide drinke A cheape liquor for poore men when malt is extreme deere IF a poore man in the time of flovvring doe gather the toppes of Heath with the flowers which is vsually called and knowne by the name of Linge in the Northerlie partes of this Realme and is that plant whereof our common heath brushes are made and laie vppe sufficient store thereof for his own prouision being well dried and carefully kept from putrefying or molding he may at all times make a very pleasing and cheape drinke for himselfe by boiling the same in faire water with such proportion thereof as may best content his owne taste And this liquor is commended vnto mee by one of the most sufficient professours of Physicke of our times and that vpon his ovvne and often experience for a most vvholesome and medicinable drinke as vvell for the Liuer as the Spleene It may be graced with a little licoras in the decoction if he see cause ¶ I haue also heard Sir Frances Drake affirme that faire water and vinegar mixed in a due proportion doth make a fine cooling and refreshing drinke in hot wether which he esteemed for a rare secret at the Sea And I haue also knowne them that haue made a voluntary drinke thereof on the lande when they haue hadde sufficient choice of others before them How to brew good and wholsome Beere without any Hoppes at al. SInce my profession in this booke is in some sorte to anatomize both Art and Nature without anie regard of priuate mens profits whom it either may essentiallie or accidentallie touch I am bolde therefore without crauing any leaue to doe good to renue or rather to confirme and ratifie an ancient opinion practise which long since in the great dearth and scarsitie of hops many brewers of this land haue beene inforced to put in vse for the better suportation of their weake and declining estates But bicause they failed in proportion without the which there can be nothing compleat or absolute they suffered a good conceit to die in the birth And no maruell then if wormwood notwithstanding it bee a simple so highly commended of all the ancient and nevve Herbarists for his great and singular effects in Physicke be in a maner vtterly abandoned of al the bruers in our time except a fewe that can make a difference betvveene fiue shillinges or 5. pound charge when hops are solde for 50. s. an hundred seeing as yet not any one of them hath so clerkly wrought vpō this simple as to couer and hide the tast therof from the wel mouthed ale-cunners of our commonwelth which weaknes of theirs bicause it cōsisteth wholy in the want of a due proportion between the mault and other beere corne in respect of vvormwood I haue thought good to set downe a sufficient direction for those that are wise and willing to doe good both to themselues and to their countrey wherby they may easilie euen in one daies practise attaine to the full perfection therof Supposing then that your wormwood is either cut down in the leafe before it be seeded or being seeded that it is cut into short peeces whereby there may be made an equal mixture of the whole bulke together for you muste note that the seedie tops are much stronger and much more oylie then the rest of the leaues or stalkes make first a decoction of 4. ounces of hoppes with nine gallons of water which is the proportion which some Bruers in some sorts of drinke doe vse and when you haue gotten out by ebulition or boyling the full strength and vertue of them keepe the same and begin likewise with some small proportion of wormewoode to the like quantitie of vvater as before and vvhen you haue bestowed as much time and fire therein as you did about the hops then taste each of them by it selfe and if you finde the same to exceede the first in bitternesse then beginne with a lesse proportion of Wormewood and so reiterate your worke till you haue equally matched the one with the other then may you safely proceed by the rule of proportion to a barrell and from thence to a tun and so to a whole bruing Neither let the bitternesse of Wormwood in his present taste any thing dismay you for if you did but taste the decoction of hoppes onelie before the mixture of ground malt which doth wonderfully sweeten the same you would thinke it a very vnapt licour to be wrought vp into so pleasing a drinke as our ordinary beere doth shew it selfe to bee for it is the hop onely which maketh the essential differēce betweene beere and ale and that by alaying the exceeding lusciousnes of malt by his bitternes whereby both vniting themselues togither become a sauourie and wholsome drinke for mans bodie which may be in euery respect as well performed in wormwood as in the hop yea peraduenture with Centaury artichoke leaues or Aloes hipatique as some work maisters haue confidentlie affirmed vnto mee And though the hop bee vsuallie in drinke and the wormewood onely in medicine wherby some may happilie be perswaded that it is inconuenient for men that are in health to drinke a medicine continuallie to their meate yet let this be a sufficient answer to that obiection that it is the dose only that maketh the difference heerein For I can assure you in mine owne experience and by the experience of one of the best experienced Bruers in London who yet liueth that if you giue a double or treble quantitie of English hoppes to an ordinarie guile of strong beere you shall finde the same to bee a sufficient preparatiue to your body for the best purgation that shall be ministred after And this is the reason whie Venice Turpentine which being ministred in a smal dose is giuen for the strengthening of the back and to stay the running of the reynes yet if it be taken in the quantitie of an ounce at once it will purge sufficientlie in diuers bodies So then either
the same to the view of the well disposed Reader whose courteous acceptation hereof may one daie peraduenture wring from me some matter of higher reach and farther seruice then as yet I see either iust cause to promise or reason to speake of And because in the treatise following my Author hath raunged ouer all manner of trees plants roots greene pulse and herbes out of which hee might by any probabilitie draw any kind of sustenance for the reliefe of man I will onely content my selfe with the handling or preparation of some of these particulars which are most plentifull in their quantitie least offensiue in their nature and most familiar with our soile and bodies so as their offensiue taste beeing first remooued by arte they may serue vs in a far better manner and to our greater liking then nowe they do either for bread drinke or food Howe to take awaie a great part of that ranke and vnsauourie tast of Beanes Pease Beechmast Chestnuttes Acornes Veches and such like IF this may in some good measure bee performed then I doubt not but that the bulke and body of our meale and flower will be much increased and multiplied at the least for the poore mannes Table then receiue mine owne experience therein Boile your beanes pease beech mast c. in faire vvater and if they be not yet pleasing inough change your vvater againe and at the second or third boyling you shall finde a strange alteration in taste for the water hath sucked out imbibed the greatest part of their ranknesse then muste you drie them and if you thinke good you may also hull them according to the maner set down hereafter in the Abstract of Anchora Famis c. or else you may grinde them vnhulled then make bread thereof either simplie of it selfe or with the addition of some third or fourth part of other wheat flower or else for better expedition at the least in drinke if not in bread you may take the ground meale of them and infuse warme water thereon and as it beginneth to coole dreyne the same avvay and reinfuse fresh warme vvater till the taste please you then drie vp the meale and make bread thereof either simplie or compounded as before And as concerning the Chestnuts we haue the experience of France therein already vvhere in great abundāce they are spent and consumed in their vsuall bread in diuers partes of that Country The beech mast doth yeeld a most sweet and delicate oile and euery waie comparable with the nut it selfe and therfore it is very probable that it wil make an excellent bread with a very smal correction if there might be some easie vvaie or maner found out for the ready husking or hulling of them which seemeth no matter of any great difficulty then I durst promise a most rich plentiful oile of our own growing and seruiceable for many necessarie vses But if notwithstanding my former preparation of beans pease c. the meale thereof do not yet content you then worke it into paast with a liquor first strengthened with some brused Annis seedes licoras or sweet Fennell seedes or with the seedes themselues incorporated in the paast or for the auoiding of charge with pepperwort Thime wintersauery penniroyal c. For if you can but deceiue the taste you shall find the bread very harty wholsome nourishing And whatsoeuer is here spoken of beanes pease c. may bee generally vnderstoode of all other graine seedes plants pulse rootes c. And that which is seruiceable for bread wil be much more tollerable in drinke for the making wherof in some more cheap maner then as yet is known or vsuall amongst vs you shal find some few notes of mine vpon the Abstract following in their seueral places Certaine strange and extraordinarie waies for the relieuing of a prisoner or other poore distressed creatures when al hope of vsual victual is taken from him THese as I dare not warrant so yet because I haue receiued them either from good Authors or frō the credible report of men of woorth I will deliuer them as faithfully as I haue receiued them 1 And first of al Paracelsus himselfe affirmeth that a fresh turfe or clod of earth applyed euery daie vnto the stomach of a man will preserue him from famishing for some smal number of daies 2 I haue heard many trauailers deliuer of their own knowledge and experience that a man may liue 10. or 12. daies by sucking of his owne bloud 3. Bapt. Port. telleth vs of a poor fellow vpon whom a ruinous house fel and the man so hedged in vvith the floores and timber that fel vpon him as that not being able to get out he vvas forced to relieue himselfe with his owne vrine for 9. or ten daies making his hand his cup to drinke in 4 But the strangest and most incredible of all the rest is that story which Parson Bateman sometime Parson of Newington had by relation of that reuerend father D. Grindal then Archbishop of Canturbury from the mouth of two English captiues that were imprisoned in Turky and for their offence condemned to bee famished to death and escaped by this means The keeper affecting his prisoners for those good parts which he found in them hauing receiued an oth of their secrecie deliuereth vnto each of thē a smal peece of Allom which hee willed them fiue or six times a day to rowle vppe and downe in theyr mouthes Howe at tenne daies ende the great Turk sending to knovv if the christians were dead or aliue and being informed of their liues he commaunded that vppon paine of death no manne should dare to relieue them with any maner of food Now when 10 daies more were expired and the like inquirie returne made as before Wel qd the Turk if they can continew yet 10. daies more without food I will say that the God of the christians wil haue them preserued and they shal be enlarged The last 10. daies expiring and the prisoners liues certified vnto the Turke they were forthwith deliuered out of prison and returned for their ovvn countrey and here discouered the secret The reason and probabilitie hereof I vvill leaue for better Magitians then my selfe For though vve might suppose that the salt of nature might receiue some strength or vigour from this minerall salt yet hovve the guts should bee filled vvith so small a proportion I cannot gesse much lesse determine ¶ A sift foode but receiuing some helpe from come vvas commended by Mendozza himselfe wherewith he assured me vpon his honor that he had relieued a Spanishe towne in an extreame dearth and scarcity of victual and therewithall shewed mee a loafe of that composition which was of wheate straw chopt into short peeces and grounde with som proportion of wheat into meale But since I haue beene farther informed that the same practise hath beene vsuall in harde yeares in some partes of England and for mine owne better satisfaction
to be had in all places nor at all times of the yeeare therefore for a second supplie I haue thought good to set downe this receit following Take of the whitest Gumme Arabique that you can buy at the Grocers let them beat the same into peeces for you as big as hafell nuttes in their great morters then take 3. ounces of this gumme first wash it in faire conduit water in a stone bason stirring it vp and downe with your hands to take the filth from it then wash it againe with some more water and powre that also away and then to euery 3. ounces so washed put a wine pint of faire conduit water stirring it vp and downe 3. or 4. times a daie to procure a speedie solution or dissoluing of the gumme then couer your pan and when all the gum is dissolued streine the vvater through a cleane and thin linnen cloth and reserue the same in glasses well stopt till you haue cause to vse it It will last sweete at the least three weekes after it is made When you would vse this starch if you desire to haue your ruffes to carie a pure perfect white colour you must mingle some blew with the water stirring it vp and downe vvith your finger in a porrenger and before the blewe settle to the bottome wet your ruffe therein and presentlie wring it out againe then pat it till it be cleare and after set it as you doe in your common starch I doe finde by experience that halfe the time that is lost in the other maner of starching is here gained for by reason that your starch is in a thinne vvater the Lawne Cambricke wil be soone cleared and with much lesse beating And I think that a second profit will here likewise fall out by the way viz. that your Lawne and Cambricke wil last much longer for if I be not deceiued the continuall patting or beating thereof betweene the hands in our vsuall starching worketh a great fretting and wearing of the same And I doubt not but that there be many other sortes of graine pulse and rootes which wil make as good starch as vvheate which at this time I leaue vnto the studious indeuours of those that are carefull for the common good It may bee that at my better leisure I may handle this subiect more at large but now the present times inforce me to deliuer that knovvledge which I haue And thus much for starch Sweete and delicate cakes made without spice or Sugar SLice great and sweete parsnep rootes such as are not seeded into thin slices and hauing washed scraped them cleane dry them and beat them into powder here a mil would make a greater dispatch searcing the same through a fine searce then knead two partes of fine flower with one part of this ponder and make the same into cakes and you shal find them to tast very daintily I haue eaten of these cakes diuers times in mine owne house Quaere what may be done in carots turneps and such like rootes after this maner Here I thinke it not impertinent to the purpose which I haue in hand to wish a better suruey to bee made of my booke of Husbandry being a parcell of the Iewel house of Art and Nature printed an 1594. Wherin sundry new sorts of Marle are familiarlie set down and published for the good of our English farmers amongst the which those waste ashes of the Sopeboilers for such as dwel neer vnto the Citie of London or may by easy water cariage conuey them vnto their hungry and leane grounds haue a principal place for the inriching of al cold moist weeping grounds The book is to be had at the Greyhound in Paules churchyard And if there were such plenty as I could wish of those shauings or cuttings of horne wherof those the work for lanthorns only make the greatest store I would thē in respect of the infinit extention therof cōmend that before any other manuring of ground whatsoeuer for the only garden doung that I know although for arable ground I must needes confes that I haue one secret not as yet made knowen or common to the world that wold proue more general more easie of price then any other whatsoeuer that I as yet haue either heard or read of but for som reasons best knowne vnto my selfe I doe as yet forbeare the discouery therof There is also a certaine victuall in the forme of hollovv pipes or wafers wherewith as also with a defensatiue oile for his armours peeces and other weapons I furnished sir Frances Drake in his laste voyage which hath beene well approued and commended by sundry of his folowers vpon their return for England whereby I was the more encouraged to make a second triall thereof in the Beare vvhich vvent latelie for CHINA This foode I am bold to commende in this place both bicause it argueth ad propositum and for that I knowe that if the maisters owners or Mariners of ships vvould aduisedlie looke into it they shoulde finde it one of the moste necessarie and cheape prouisions that they could possibly make or carie with them The particular commendation whereof resteth vppon these few branches following 1 ¶ First it is very durable for I haue kept the same both sweet and sound by the space of 3. yeares and it agreeth best with heat which is the principal destroyer of Sea victuall 2 It is exceeding light for which qualitie Sir Frances Drake did highly esteeme thereof one man may carie vpon any occasiō of land seruice so much thereof as vvill be sufficient to relieue two hundred men a day 3 It is speedily dressed for in one halfe houre it is sufficientlie sodden by which property it may also saue much fevvell and fiering which occupieth no small roome in a ship 4 It is fresh and thereby very pleasing vnto the Mariner in the midst of his salt meats 5 It is cheape for in this dearth of corne I dare vndertake to feed one man sufficientlie for 2. pence a meale 6 It serueth both in steede of bread and meate whereby it perfourmeth a double seruice 7 Not being spent it may be laide vp in store for a second voyage 8 It may be made as delicate as you please by the addition of oyle butter sugar and such like 9 There is sufficient matter to bee hadde al the yeare long for the composition thereof 10 And if I might once finde any good incouragement therein I vvould not doubt but to deliuer the same prepared in such sort as that without anye farther dressing thereof it should bee both pleasing and of good nourishment vnto a hungry stomach ¶ Al those which are willing to victual their ships therewith if they repaire vnto me I wil vpon reasonable warning furnish them therewith to their good contentment A speedie or present drinke which Trauailers may make for themselues extempore when they are distressed for want of good beer or ale at their Inne
let there be no more taste of wormewood then there is of hops in our drinke and we shall finde no difference in effects but such as shall commend and grace the wormwood beyond the hoppe or let beere bee aduanced with the hop to the bitternes of wormwood wine so we shal find the hop far to exceed the wormwood in his maligne qualitie Thus much I haue thought good to publishe for the credit of wormwood and for the benefit of this Iland in sundry respectes which I shall not neede to particularize at this time because they are so commonlie knovvne to all men And though I knowe I may be ouerweyed either with the Flaunders Merchants or with the great hop maisters of Englande whose foundation is so deeply laide that a fewe loose lines can neither shake nor stir the same yet eyther knowing or at the least perswading my selfe to maintaine the truth before I giue it ouer I will craue the libertie of the schooles quòd fiat controuersia And in the meane time those which will not bee satisfied of the wholsom and rare medicinable helps of the one togither with the weake and feeble vertues of the other which was but a hedgebird the other daye thogh now it be perking so proudlie vpon his poles I wil refer them to the learned Herbals of Dioscorides Matheolus Doctor Turner Dodoneus Turnizerus and the rest An abstract of certaine frugall notes or obseruations in a time of Dearth or famine concerning bread drink and meate with some other circumstances belonging to the same taken out of a Latin writer intituling his booke Anchora famis sitis FIrst for the auoiding of all putrefaction aswell in bread as in corne it is very requisite that they bee perfectly dried or gentlie parched either in the sun or by the warmth of the ayre or else in the want of these two in some apt ouen or rather in a Stoue but with such care as they doe not burne or sauour of adustion 2 After the baking of your bread it is necessarie that the same be left in the ouen wel closed for some reasonable time the heate thereof being lessened by degrees for so the bread being thoroughly baked suffered to coole of it selfe again will satisfie the hunger of a man in double proportion to that which otherwise it would 3 Each kind or sort of bread being a little tosted ouer the coales and afterwards sopped in wine will fil or glut exceedingly such a breakefast as this taken in the morning is a sufficient repast for the vvhole daie after 4 The meale of parched corne doth fill the gutte exceedinglie 5 Bread may bee made of Rice Indian millet or Turkish wheat either by decocting the whole grain in water and so bringing it to the forme of a pulteis and after baking the same or else by grinding it into meale but the latter way maketh the fairer bread This may as sufficientlie bee performed with our ordinarie wheat for ought that I can imagine 6 All maner of pulse as Lentils vetches beanes such like if they be first rubbed ouer in Lee then hulled and after ground they will yeelde both fayrer meale and better bread 7 Paast or dowe is soone baked vpon thin plates of iron or brasse 8 Those which ride poste are oftentimes content both to bake their bread and also to rost their meate vnder the seates of their saddles here I think that our climate will proue too cold 9 Men must be broughr by degrees and not too sodainlie from their vsual and natural food and drinke into these artificiall diets 10 A pulteis or hochpot made of flower or meale sodden amongst apples peares plums and such like fruite or of some bread and water or the broath of fleshe that hath beene tosted in the smoke or vvith milke wel boiled togither doth fil the stomack more then thrice so much of dry bread eaten alone especiallie if the same be high boiled to a stifnes or consistencie 11 Such like compositions do also extend farther in the satisfieng of hungry mawes being made of Biskets or dry hard or stale grated bread And by this meanes one loafe wil go as far as two new loaues 12 All sortes of good cakebread or spicebread steeped a conuenient time in faire vvater will conuert the vvater into a most pleasant or wholsome drinke the bread notwithstanding being very wholsome to be eaten 13 Pound your pepper ginger and such like spices and hauing steeped them in water place the same well couered ouer a gentle fire and then worke your paast with the imbibition or decoction therof And by this meanes your spice will extend much farther in cakebread And the same spice also being nevve pounded or beaten may bee afterward wrought vp in paast for cakebread Here you may practise vpon these plants which be hot and wholsome withall as the wilde Cresses otherwise called Pepperwort Galingale Thime Orrace Isop Wintersauery Penniroyall and such like hearbes instead of spices 14 Some of these artificiall kinds of bread drinke if there be any left that may be wel spared will serue for the feeding and fatning of cattel geese Hennes Hogs c. 15 The smell or sent of bread I thinke hee meaneth that which is new and hot from the Ouen doth nourish the body and refresh the spirits greatly Some commend the spirites of bread extracted by distillation as a most soueraign preseruatiue in the consumption and other pining diseases 16 If any of these artificial foods or drinkes doe happen to offend either in colour tast or sauor they may be helped with hony sugar saffrō wine annis seeds Coriander seedes sweet Fenel Cinamon and such like 17 In the time of necessity euen greene corne taken as it groweth of it selfe or a little parched or dryed against the fire or steeped or boiled in wine or water affoordeth a reasonable kind of sustenance 18 The distilled water of oats doth so warme the stomach as it doth ouercome the senses It is wel known that many do brue a verie strong mightie drink with malted oates howe profitable the same might bee to all our English Brewers if there might bee sufficient store of them had in a dearth of wheat and barlie the same being rightlie matched or rather mastered a little with the hop to alter their tast they can best tell that haue made their priuate experience and profit of them when others very inconsideratly haue runne on in their common and chargeable course of brewing 19 The licour of the Birch tree is both wholesome and sauerie and deserueth to be recommended in his kind 20 There may bee an excellent extraction made of ale which you may terme either a spirit or a quintessence and that in a smal dose far more excellent then all the tartareous sulphureous or mercuriall preparations If the Authour do heere meane any philosophicall course it will bee both too curious and costly for the common sort of people if onely