On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 1428

life,”atermthatlivesoninScandinavia
(aquavit),inFrance(eaudevie),andin
English:whiskyistheanglicizedversionof
theGaelicfor“wateroflife,”uisgebeathaor
usquebaugh,whichiswhatIrishandScots
monkscalledtheirdistilledbarleybeer.
ThroughouttheOldWorld,alchemists
thoughtofdistilledalcoholasauniquely
powerfulsubstance,thequintessenceorfifth
elementthatwasasfundamentalasearth,
water,air,andfire.Thefirstprintedbook
devotedtodistillation,Hieronymus
Brunschwygk’sLiberdeartedistillandi
(1500),explainedthattheprocessachieves
theseparationofthegrossfromthesubtle
andthesubtlefromthegross,the
breakableanddestructiblefromthe
indestructible,thematerialfromthe
immaterial,soastomakethebodymore
spiritual,theunlovelylovely,tomakethe
spirituallighterbyitssubtlety,topenetrate


withitsconcealedvirtuesandforceinto
thehumanbodytodoitshealingduty.
It’s this connection between distillation and
the pure and ethereal that gives us our
synonymfordistilledalcohol,spirits.
From Medicine to Pleasure and Drug of
Oblivion For several centuries after its
discovery,aqua vitae was produced in

apothecaries and monasteries and prescribed
as acordial, a medicine to stimulate the
circulation (the word comes from the Latin
for “heart”). It seems to have been liberated
from the pharmacy and drunk for pleasure in
the 15th century, when the termsBernewyn
a n dbrannten Wein, ancestors of our word
brandythatmeant“burning”or“burnt”wine,
appear in German laws about public
drunkenness.Thisisalsowhenwinemakersin
the Armagnac region of southwest France
began to distill their wine into spoilageresistant brandy for shipping to northern