Long time no alchemic blogging. Really, 2017 and 2018 have been those kinds of years. I have few things I formulated that I will have to note here, like my wild Citrinitas Cordial.
I think I finally got enough saffron in my 2018 crop to go forward with the recipe that got me started on saffron in the first place, almost eight years ago: the Elixir of Propriety. This is a medicine crafted by Paracelsus, and one which he regarded most highly. I'm not using his exact 16th century formula because it requires a Pelican, a type of glassware I do not have. And it takes several months to make following his process.
But this essential formula stayed in play up until the early 20th century, with many healers compounding their own versions. One recipe which caught my attention and seems quite replicable is from Herman Boorhaave from the 18th century. This version also uses vinegar. The vinegar base would be especially suited to using my radiant heat cordial infuser but it needs about three cups of liquid to operate and as near as I can calculate, I'm need to have about 5 ounces of vinegar based on the weight of my ingredients.
“Take choice aloes, saffron, and myrrh, of each half an ounce, cut and bruise them, put them into a tall bolt-head, pour twenty times their own weight of the strongest distilled vinegar thereon, let them simmer together in our little wooden furnace for twelve hours: now suffer the whole to rest, that the fæces may subside, and gently strain off the pure liquor through a thin linen; put half the quantity of distilled vinegar to the remainder, boil and proceed as before, and throw away the fæces. Mix the two tinctures together, and distil with a gentle fire till the whole is thickened to a third; keep the vinegar that comes over for the same use; and what remains behind is the Elixir Proprietatis, made with distilled vinegar.”
I still have a small amount of saffron from last year's crop, but I'd like to make a couple dishes for the impending winter solstice with saffron in them, as that's how it gets used by so many European cultures, so I don't want to put every thread I can find in the house into this. However, as I sit here writing this, my brain is telling me I should use the ingredients I have, use the cordial infuser even if the product will be a lesser concentration than traditional, and let the 12 hours of simmering take place on the actual winter solstice. My vigil, due to my northern latitude, is almost sixteen hours, and since I want to share my night between my options (home vigil and friends vigil) that could actually work, where I start the elixir infusing early in the vigil and that part runs overnight. In the morning vigil hours, I can set the elixir to rest, and then after I sleep for a while, I can finish the reduction and thickening process that afternoon while still enjoying the full moon and alchemically fixative influences.
I'm liking this plan. Time to mix up enough saffron paste to cover my cooking needs, and then I need to figure the weight of everything I have left and that will go in the elixir.