The Blasted Heath

Tuesday, July 03, 2012

The Dog’s Nose and Caudles

“It is another of your damned possets. Am I in childbed, for all love, that I should be plagued, smothered, destroyed with caudle? C S Forester, HMS Surprise

“any sloppy mess, especially that sweet mixture of gruel and wine or spirits once given by nurses to recently confined women and their ‘gossips’ who called to see the baby during the first month” Definition of caudle in Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable”

”Mr Walker, a convert to the Brick Lane branch of the United Grand Junction Ebenezer Temperance Association, thought that tasting Dog’s Nose twice a week for 20 years had lost him the use of his right hand.” Dickens, Our Mutual Friend

Caudles were concoctions that appeared in the Middle Ages and soldiered on into the 19^th century, then dying out for probably for very good reasons. They appear to be potions intended to provide sustenance as well as cheer. They were a warm drink consisting of wine or ale mixed with sugar, eggs, bread, and various spices, sometimes given to invalids and the convalescent and to pregnant women. According to Wikipedia “The earliest surviving recipe, from 1300–1325, is simply a list of ingredients: wine, wheat starch, raisins, and sugar to "abate the strength of the wine". Another recipe from the late 14th century has more ingredients and more details on the cooking procedure: mix breadcrumbs, wine, sugar or honey, and saffron, bring to a boil, then thicken with egg yolks, and sprinkle with salt, sugar, and ginger. A 15th-century English cookbook includes three caudle recipes: ale or wine is heated and thickened with egg yolks and/or ground almonds, then optionally spiced with sugar, honey, saffron, and/or ginger (one recipe specifically says "no salt").”

See here for some caudle recipes if you are foolhardy enough to try them http://jducoeur.org/carolingia/orlando_caudle.html

A rather more pugnacious drink that appears to have survived until recent times is the Dog’s Nose. Dickens mentions it (see above) and Jassy Davis gives a recipe for it on http://ginandcrumpets.com/dogs-nose-%E2%80%93-a-dickensian-mull/

“Serves 1

330ml porter
60ml gin
3 tsp soft light brown sugar
Nutmeg, to taste

Pour the porter and gin into a small pan and add the sugar. Grate in about 1/8 of a nutmeg. Gently heat until it is steaming hot. Taste and add more sugar and nutmeg if needed. Serve in a heatproof glass.”

She notes: “It’s a warming, spicy mix of sweet and bitter that conjures up roaring fires, candle-lit pubs, plush cushions, thick coats and vomit. Not that it tastes of vomit per se, but there is a definite future echo of it. Every mouthful is a warning of what will happen on later that evening if you insist on sticking to the Dog’s Noses.”

Soho bohemians appear to have dispensed with the warming and the adding of sugar and nutmeg and the Dog’s Noses they drank involved buying a pint of beer, drinking off the top inch and then pouring a shot of gin into the glass. It was served as such in The Gargoyle Club in Meard Street. Josh Avery (in Nigel Richardson’s Dog Days in Soho) described it as like being struck on each temple simultaneously by very large wooden mallets, or being trapped in the striking mechanism of a town hall at noon.

The original Dog’s Nose is far more of a comforting draught if taken in moderation. Dickens mentions it several times in Our Mutual Friend and it figures in his description of the Six Jolly Fellowship Porters, generally agreed to be the Grapes standing at the river’s edge in Wapping: “ both the tap and parlor of the Six Jolly Fellowship-Porters gave upon the river, and had red curtains matching the noses of the regular customers, and were provided with comfortable fireside tin utensils, like models of sugar-loaf hats, made in that shape that they might, with their pointed ends, seek out for themselves glowing nooks in the depths of the red coals when they mulled your ale, or heated for you those delectable drinks, Purl, Flip, and Dog's Nose.”

More on Purl (and on Smoking Bishop!!) in a future entry.

Labels: Caudles, Cocktails, Dog's Nose