18th Century Spiced Hot Chocolate

Fun fact: sugar cubes are a Czech invention by Jakub Kryštof Rad, the CEO of a sugar refinery (from beets, not cane), who came up with the idea after his wife hurt herself while chipping pieces off of that sugar cone. She was the first person ever to receive a package of sugar cubes. You can find two sugar cube memorials in the town od Dačice, where the sugar refinery used to be.

In Mexico we still use a version of sugar cone called piloncillo, which is brown because it's made with unprocessed sugar cane syrup. It tastes great and is used in several traditional desserts.

Tips for getting the most out of your vanilla beans from a baker: - if you’re not planning on using the whole bean, scrape out the seeds and mix them into sugar to make vanilla sugar. Excellent way to extend the shelf life and use out of your beans, just substitute any amount of sugar for vanilla sugar to boost flavour, especially in chocolate flavoured goods - with the now empty pods, an alternative to making vanilla extract (which can take months) is to dry out the empty pods in a low heat oven. Not only does it make your house smell wonderful, you can then crush the dry pods in a spice grinder and make vanilla powder. Dust on literally anything before baking to provide an aromatic vanilla boost, not to be used as a substitute for extract as this contains just the pods. - an alternative to drying the empty pods is to pan toast them until fragrant before using them to make extracts or syrups for a rich, toasted flavour Vanilla beans are an expensive resource, especially for the home cook. This is how we get our money’s worth both at home and in the bakery.

The "long S" is a calligraphic headache all too familiar to anyone who's read the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence: there have been jokes for ages about " . . . life, liberty, and the purfuit of happineff."

Funny thing about "Ye Olde" I recently learned is that there was a character in an old language that looked similar to a "Y." Ironically, it's pronounced "th." Thusly, the proper way to say "Ye Olde" is "The Old." 🤭

A perfumed hot beverage Too illegal to be ever brewed The alternative no less average For the genteel, fine wit or shrewd A spiced extravagance to start a Friday Made with nibs, vanilla, cinnamon and cardamom To keep the thoughts of Monday away ☕

"Where the bee sucks so suck I" Given Shakespeare's penchant for double entendre, it wouldn't surprise me at all if he wrote that line specifically with the similarity between the long s and the f in mind...

As a Belizean, i have a suggestion for those who are not quite ready to try chilies with their chocolate but want a slightly gentler intro to the idea, try candied ginger dipped in dark chocolate. Gives you a bit of the nippy bite, the heat, without the chili flavor. ❤ 🇧🇿

An even BETTER idea for that unused 1/2 Vanilla bean: put it in a dedicated container of sugar, and you have Vanilla Sugar much cheaper than in the stores.

I love the cooking terms we no longer use. Weakened vinegar = half vinegar and half water. Morning milk = half and half.

We just got back from Costa Rica where we did a chocolate plantation tour. They use the cast off husks to make a tea. It was DELICIOUS and very chocolaty.

9:30 You could get it refurbished and functional again! Electroplating the inside with silver or copper would make it shiny like new (and food safe)!

One not often commented on but still quite fascinating aspect of these old recipes is seeing the change in language throughout the ages, not only with the words, but also the verbose way in which people arranged their discourse even for something as mundane as cooking instructions. I find it quite charming.

Conching, the process of grinding cocoa nibs with all of the additives required for the type of chocolate being made, usually takes at least 24 hours. And that's using a conche, a machine specifically made for grinding and keep everything mixing evenly. As for the grittiness, that's the main reason for conching taking very long. Our tongue can detect as "gritty" particles as small as 10 microns, so a long grinding time is required to achieve the smooth texture we expect from chocolate nowadays.

I am from Tucson, and I go to Mexico often. Here there is a drink called Champurrado that is made with a Mexican chocolate product like the brick you produced spiced and thicked with corn flower. It's like thick slightly sweet hot coco or thin pudding.

One of the ways I'd always melt the chocolate blocks of Mexican Chocolate (Ibarra or Abuelita) that I'd make, that my grandmother taught me, is to basically boil a small amount of water in the pot (very small amount, like enough to have a quarter of an inch from the bottom) and then melt the chocolate and make sure everything is melted and incorporated smoothly in that first, then let it cool for a bit and then add the milk and heat it up. That way all you have to worry about is frothing it properly and not if the chocolate melted or not.

"Drinking 50 cups" and that's where the term, "Montezuma's Revenge' came from.

Another thing worth mentioning is that, in some ritualistic drinks, the chocolate was so concentrated that the theobromine (a chemically similar substance to caffeine) would be at high enough concentration to cause mild hallucinations and euphoria. It is not enough to cause you to "trip balls", but enough for an already religiously aligned person to feel "in contact with the gods". Energy, motivation, clarity, all kinds of positive feelings one would think is a blessing. Today, it is easy to reach the same effect by making a "strong" pre-workout drink. I guess those ancient natives were onto something...

Musk sticks have been popular in Australia since the 1920s, but they have been eclipsed this century by many new sweets that are now available. They are a sugary fondant, either soft or firm, which is extruded as sticks with a star shaped cross section. They have a dusky aroma similar to rose, vanilla, patchouli and other flowery fragrances and a sweet “musky” rose-water flavour. My grandmother loved them. They don’t use animal-gland derived musk, but rather an imitation musk however I don’t know its composition. More recently sweets with the same texture and shape have appeared with lime, lemon, pineapple and other flavours, but the pink musk ones are the original.

Don't waste half a vanilla bean - use it to make vanilla sugar. I have a 2nd sugar canister that I keep toss vanilla bean pieces into, and add sugar as I use it. Okay, a 4th sugar canister - white, brown, powdered & vanilla. Oh wait, and I have turbinado that I use to top muffins; I may have a problem...