History Cookbook: Hippocras (Hippocrace, Hippocrass)
This recipe is in category Tudors
About this recipe
Healthiness : (349 votes)
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This spiced wine was cooked gently at the edge of the fire to let the spices mingle with the wine. In unheated Tudor houses, hot drinks were popular and there are many recipes for different mulled drinks.
Sugar was an expensive luxury and was bought as a loaf. Pieces were chipped off and ground up when needed. Poorer households would use honey to sweeten food and drinks. Bees could be kept in straw skeps.
Spices were imported and very expensive, small quantities are used to make this drink very special.
For pictures of the cooking process see our Hippocras Picture Gallery.
With thanks to Cathy Flower-Bond (Tudor Tales) and the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum for their help with making this podcastIngredients
- red wine
- star anise
- cinnamon powdered
- ginger powdered
- nutmeg powdered
- honey
- orange and apple slices
Equipment
- Pot
- Knife
- Chopping board
- Wooden spoon
Making and cooking it

- Set the pipkin by the fire to warm
- Put the wine in the pot
- Add the cinnamon, star anise, ginger and nutmeg and allow to infuse
- Add the slices of orange and apple
- Sweeten with honey
- Serve warm with sweetmeats at the end of a meal

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Name: Keldeoboy846 | 23rd March 2015 |
Amazing, but it turns into toffee so remove honey and replace red wine with white wine |
Name: Eddie The Dester | 2nd November 2011 |
i tried the non alcaholic one (as you do if youre a kid) wich was the spiced apple juice. That was realy nice and to make an alcaholic one of them instead of doing this you could do exactly the same as the spiced apple juice but use cider instead? it is Tudor like because it is like spiced apple juice only using cider to make it a bit more alcaholic... Just a thought. but i wouldn't drink it because i'm only 10. |
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