"I will not hold you long with recounting of our brewhouses,
bake-houses, and kitchens, where are made divers drinks, breads, and
meats, rare and of special effects. Wines we have of grapes; and
drinks of other juice of fruits, of grains, and of roots; and of
mixtures with honey, sugar, manna, and fruits dried, and decocted; Also
of the tears or woundings of trees; and of the pulp of canes. And these
drinks are of several ages, some to the age or last of forty years. We
have drinks also brewed with several herbs, and roots, and spices; yea
with several fleshes, and white-meats; whereof some of the drinks are
such, as they are in effect meat and drink both: so that divers,
especially in age, do desire to live with them, with little or no meat
or bread. And above all, we strive to have drink of extreme thin
parts, to insinuate into the body, and yet without all biting,
sharpness, or fretting; insomuch as some of them put upon the back of
your hand will, with a little stay, pass through to the palm, and yet
taste mild to the mouth. We have also waters which we ripen in that
fashion, as they become nourishing; so that they are indeed excellent
drink; and many will use no other. Breads we have of several grains,
roots, and kernels; yea and some of flesh and fish dried; with divers
kinds of leavenings and seasonings: so that some do extremely move
appetites; some do nourish so, as divers do live of them, without any
other meat; who live very long. So for meats, we have some of them so
beaten and made tender and mortified, yet without all corrupting, as a
weak heat of the stomach will turn them into good chylus; as well as a
strong heat would meat otherwise prepared. We have some meats also and
breads and drinks, which taken by men enable them to fast long after;
and some other, that used make the very flesh of men's bodies sensibly
more hard and tough and their strength far greater than otherwise it
would be.
"We have dispensatories, or shops of medicines. Wherein you may easily
think, if we have such variety of plants and living creatures more than
you have in Europe, (for we know what you have,) the simples, drugs,
and ingredients of medicines, must likewise be in so much the greater
variety. We have them likewise of divers ages, and long fermentations.
And for their preparations, we have not only all manner of exquisite
distillations and separations, and especially by gentle heats and
percolations through divers strainers, yea and substances; but also
exact forms of composition, whereby they incorporate almost, as they
were natural simples.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account