Editing Caudle

{{short description|Historical hot drink}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{for|people with the surname|Caudle (surname)}}
[[File:The Holyoke Caudle Cup, John Coney, American, c.&nbsp;1690, silver - Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University - DSC01393.jpg|thumb|The Holyoke Caudle Cup, silver c. 1690,  by [[John Coney (silversmith)|John Coney]], [[Fogg Art Museum]]]]

A '''caudle''' (or '''caudel''')<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://medievalcookery.com/recipes/butterbeer.html|title=Medieval Cookery - Buttered Beere|website=medievalcookery.com|access-date=2016-12-23}}</ref> was a hot drink that recurred in various guises throughout [[British cuisine]] from the Middle Ages into Victorian times. It was thick and sweet, and seen as particularly suitable and sustaining for invalids and new mothers. At some periods of history, caudle recipes were based on milk and eggs, like [[eggnog]]. Later variants were more similar to a [[gruel]], a sort of drinkable oatmeal porridge. Like the original forms of [[posset]] (a drink of wine and milk, rather than a set dessert), a caudle was usually alcoholic.

There were special '''caudle cups''', larger than teacups, often with a cover, and perhaps two handles. These were either in pottery or metal, and might be given as presents. 

== Etymology ==
[[File:Caudle spoon MET SF13 42 89 img1.jpg|thumb|upright=0.3|A silver caudle spoon, Dutch, 17th-century]]

The word ''caudle'' came into [[Middle English]] via the [[Old French|Old North French]] word ''caudel'', ultimately derived from [[Latin]] {{lang|la|caldus}}, "warm".{{sfn|Harper}} According to the [[Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition|''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Eleventh Edition]], the word derived from Medieval Latin {{lang|la|caldellum}}, a diminutive of {{lang|la|caldum}}, a warm drink, from {{lang|la|calidus}}, hot.<ref name=EB1911/> The [[Oxford English Dictionary]] cites the use of the word to 1297. The word's etymological connection to heat makes it [[cognate]] with "cauldron".

== Recipes ==
A related recipe for [[skyr]], a cultured dairy product, appears in the early 13th century.{{sfn|Grewe and Hieatt|2001|p=42}} The earliest surviving recipe for caudle, from 1300 to 1325, is simply a list of ingredients: wine, wheat starch, raisins, and sugar to "abate the strength of the wine".{{sfn|Hieatt and Butler|1985|loc=Item 5|p=45}}

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.{{sfn|Hieatt and Butler|1985|loc=Item 43}}{{sfn|Austin|1888}} 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").{{sfn|Hieatt and Pensado|1988|loc=Items 83, 84 and 139}} In a description of an [[initiation ceremony]] at [[Merton College, Oxford]] in 1647, caudle is described as a "syrupy gruel with spices and wine or ale added".{{sfn|Olmert|1996|p=174}} [[William Carew Hazlitt]] provides a number of recipes for caudles and [[posset]]s in his 1886 book, ''Old Cookery Books and Ancient Cuisine''.{{sfn|Hazlitt|1886}}

The [[Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition|''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Eleventh Edition]] describes it as "a drink of warm [[gruel]], mixed with spice and wine, formerly given to women in childbed",<ref name=EB1911>{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Caudle|volume=5|page=556}}</ref> i.e. as a restorative food during her [[postpartum confinement]].

[[Emily Post]]'s 1922 ''[[Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics, and at Home]]'', the classic guide to American manners, states that "although according to cook-books caudle is a gruel, the actual "caudle" invariably served at christenings is a hot [[eggnog]], drunk out of little punch cups"<ref>{{cite book |last1=Post |first1=Emily |title=Etiquette: In Society, in Business, in Politics and at Home |date=2007 |publisher=Cosimo, Inc. |isbn=9781602061149 |page=386 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wSUvoAC5Sp8C&q=%22cake+and+caudle%22&pg=PA386 |accessdate=31 December 2018 |language=en}}</ref> (see [[Punch bowl]]).

== "For the sick and lying-in"==
{{See also|Postpartum confinement}}
Aside from the initiation ceremony mentioned above, caudle was often served to people who were seen to need strengthening, especially invalids and new mothers. A historian of [[Georgian England]] says that [[maternity hospital]]s always served a "traditional postlabor fortified caudle" to women who had just given birth.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cody |first1=LISA FORMAN |title=Living and Dying in Georgian London's Lying-in Hospitals |journal=Bulletin of the History of Medicine |date=Summer 2004 |volume=78 |issue=2 |pages=309–348 |jstor=44448006 |doi=10.1353/bhm.2004.0061 |pmid=15211051 |s2cid=19781471 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1477505 }}</ref> The [[British Lying-In Hospital]] had "Laws, Orders, and Regulations" printed to be displayed on the wards, detailing among other things, the menu. Mothers on the "low diet" had caudle; when they graduated to the "common diet" it was beer caudle; and the "full diet" had no need of the invalid liquid anymore.<ref>{{cite book |last1=England) |first1=British Lying-In Hospital (London |title=The Laws, Orders, and Regulations, of the British Lying-In Hospital, for the Reception of Lying-in Married Women: Collected Together, Revised, ... And Presented by the Weekly Committee, at a General Quarterly Court ... October, 1769. ... Confirmed at a Special General Court ... the 15th Day of November Following |date=1781 |publisher=E. Cox |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ka01P1jHPPUC&q=The+Laws%2C+Orders%2C+and+Regulations%2C+of+the+British+Lying-In+Hospital%2C&pg=PA30 |accessdate=31 December 2018 |language=en}}</ref>

[[Maria Rundell]] included a "caudle for the sick and lying-in" in her best-selling ''[[A New System of Domestic Cookery]]'' (1806).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rundell |first1=Maria |title=A new system of domestic cookery |date=1806 |page=292 }}</ref> ("[[Lying-in]]" is an obsolete term for childbirth, referring to the extended period of [[bed rest]] that marked the traditional recuperation time.) [[Judith Montefiore]] likewise included caudle with the "recipes for invalids" in her ''The Jewish Manual'' (1846), the first exposition of [[Jewish cuisine]] in English.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Montefiore |first1=Judith Cohen |title=The Jewish Manual |date=1846 |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Jewish_Manual/Chapter_X |accessdate=30 December 2018}}</ref> Five years later, ''The English Housekeeper'' by [[Anne Cobbett]] (daughter of [[William Cobbett]]) gives variants of caudles, of either gruel (oatmeal) or rice, with different types of alcohol, and seasonings, including [[wikt:capillaire|capillaire]]. She devotes a chapter to invalid food, making the point that "Often when the Doctor's skill has saved the life of his patient [...] it remains for the diligent nurse to prepare the cooling drinks and restorative foods [...]. Everything which is prepared for a sick person should be delicately clean, served quickly, in the nicest order; and in a small quantity at a time."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cobbett |first1=Anne |title=The English Housekeeper |chapter=Chapter 30 |date=1851 |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_English_Housekeeper/Chapter_30 |accessdate=30 December 2018}}</ref>

==Caudle parties==
[[File:Takings, or, The life of a collegian - a poem (1821) (14778349622).jpg|thumb|left|[[Richard Dagley]]'s illustration "Taking caudle" of [[Thomas Gaspey]]'s poem. The new mother reclines in a four-poster bed, recouping her energy. A member of the household sits at the foot of the bed, entertaining a visitor, who keeps her bonnet on; both of them are drinking caudle. A maidservant shows the baby to the visitor, while a dog and cat look on.]]
As caudel was served to new mothers to build up their strength, so it was offered to their visitors, to share in the happy occasion. "Cake and caudel" or "taking caudle" became [[Metonymy|the accepted phrases]] for a "lying-in visit", when women went to see their friends' new babies. These were [[women-only space|all-female occasions]], as more than one man noted. The American playwright [[Royall Tyler]] has one of the female characters in the [[comedy of manners]] ''[[The Contrast (play)|The Contrast]]'' (1787) decline the offer of a man's escorting her by claiming that "half [her] visits are cake and caudel" and therefore unsuitable for him.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tyler |first1=Royall |last2=Kierner |first2=Cynthia A. |title=The Contrast: Manners, Morals, and Authority in the Early American Republic |date=2007 |publisher=NYU Press |isbn=9780814747926 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HdIe7Dp1cFgC&q=%22cake+and+caudle%22&pg=PA94 |accessdate=31 December 2018 |language=en}}</ref> A generation later in 1821, [[Thomas Gaspey]] wrote of these visits (with the italics in the original):

{{poemquote|
'Twas then Eliza, though now Mrs. T.
We ought to call her, gave her lord an heir, 
And all her female friends, the babe to see
And praise its beauty, failed not to repair;
But half what they to utter there thought meet,
While ''taking caudle'', I must not repeat.
}}

Offering caudel, or cake and caudel, to all lying-in visitors is referred to as an old British custom. [[Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz|Queen Charlotte]], consort of [[George III of the United Kingdom|George III]], bore him 15 princes and princesses.  After the christening of the youngest, [[Princess Amelia of the United Kingdom|Princess Amelia]] in 1783, "the greater part of the company then paid a visit to the nursery, where they were entertained (as usual on such occasions) with cake and caudel."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Oulton |first1=W.C. |title=Authentic and Impartial Memoirs of Her Late Majesty: Charlotte Queen of Great Britain and Ireland Containing a Faithfull Retrospect of Hearly Days Her Marriage Coronation Correspondence Illness Death, Funeral Obsequies |date=1819 |page=187 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8XAloATNDhUC&q=%22cake+and+caudle%22&pg=PA187 |accessdate=31 December 2018}}</ref> This continued into [[Queen Victoria]]'s reign: the day after she gave birth to the [[Prince of Wales]], "many of the female Nobility called at Buckingham Palace, and were received by [[Anne Caulfeild, Countess of Charlemont|Lady Charlemont]], the [[Lady in waiting]], and after taking caudle were taken to the north wing to see the infant Prince."<ref>{{cite book |title=The Court magazine and belle assemblée [afterw.] and monthly critic and the Lady's magazine and museum |page=537 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_z8FAAAAQAAJ&q=%22taking+caudle%22&pg=PA538 |accessdate=31 December 2018 |language=en|last1=Critic |first1=Court Magazine Monthly |date=July 1841 }}</ref>

But it was not just nobles who came. ''[[La Belle Assemblée|The Court Magazine and Belle Assemblée]]'' reported that the aftermath of a royal birth was "a usual reception of the public to cake and caudel".<ref>{{cite book |title=The Court magazine and belle assemblée [afterw.] and monthly critic and the Lady's magazine and museum |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vz8FAAAAQAAJ&q=%22cake+and+caudle%22&pg=PA409 |accessdate=31 December 2018 |language=en|last1=Critic |first1=Court Magazine Monthly |date = July 1840}}</ref> The ''[[London Chronicle]]'' reported in 1765 that "The resort of different ranks of people at St. James's to receive the Queen's Caudle is now very great."<ref>{{cite web |title=Home : Oxford English Dictionary |url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/29073?rskey=8vhJ7J&result=1#eid |website=www.oed.com |accessdate=31 December 2018 |language=en}}</ref>
[[File:Geboorte-aangifte prins Alexander op stadhuis te Utrech v.l.n.r. dr. Beel , prin, Bestanddeelnr 920-2952.jpg|thumb|Formal caudle party after the birth of King [[Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands]] in 1967]]

After the birth of [[Princess Augusta Sophia of the United Kingdom|Princess Augusta Sophia]], the sixth child of George III and Queen Charlotte:

{{blockquote|Connected with the event of her Royal Highness's birth,  during the usual reception of the public to cake and caudle, on Sunday 13th of November, 1768, a curious incident occurred at the Palace: - two young ladies, after having drunk plentifully of caudle, were detected in carrying off a large portion of the cake, and some of the cups in which the caudle had been served; they were allowed, however, to escape with a severe reprimand, after begging pardon on their knees for so disgraceful an act.<ref>{{cite book |title=George the Third, his Court, and family, Volume 1 |date=1820 |page=73 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KAyQLvA3cBMC |accessdate=17 January 2019|last1=Britain) |first1=George III. (King of Great }}</ref>}}

In England, the custom had died out by around 1850,<ref>Hughes, 146</ref> but the birth of the current King [[Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands]] in [[Utrecht]] in 1967 was celebrated there a few days later by an apparently all-male caudle (''candeel'' in Dutch) party including [[Prince Claus of the Netherlands|his father]], the [[Piet de Jong|Prime Minister]], and other dignitaries, who wore [[morning dress]] to eat caudle with teaspoons from highly decorated handleless cups with saucers, held up near the mouth, as the photos in the state archives show.<ref>Caption: "Geboorte-aangifte prins Alexander op stadhuis te Utrech v.l.n.r. dr. Beel , prins Claus en Premier De Jong drinken kopje kandeel", 2 May 1967</ref>  The event was held in the Utrecht city hall, where after the caudle the new prince's birth was registered by the mayor.  The birth of the prince's mother, Queen [[Beatrix of the Netherlands]], in 1938 had also been celebrated with a caudle party.

==Caudle cups==
[[File:Two-Handled Covered Cup and Saucer LACMA 54.140.18a-c.jpg|thumb|Caudle cup in [[Worcester porcelain]], 1805]]
[[File:Caudle Cup, London, c.&nbsp;1660-1670 - Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art - DSC08668.JPG|thumb|An earthenware caudle cup depicting [[King Charles II of England]], 1660s, [[Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art]]]]There was a vessel particular to the drink, the caudle cup, a traditional gift, either [[baby shower|for a pregnant woman]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Baring-Gould |first1=Sabine |title=Devonshire Characters and Strange Events |chapter=Joanna Southcott |date=1908 |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Devonshire_Characters_and_Strange_Events/Joanna_Southcott |accessdate=30 December 2018}}</ref> or on visits by female friends to the mother lying-in.<ref>Hughes, 144</ref>  Late 17th and early 18th-century examples in silver are low bulbous bowls with two handles, and often a cover. These were passed around among the company.<ref>[https://www.artic.edu/artworks/83917/caudle-cup "Caudle Cup", c. 1683], [[Art Institute of Chicago]]; {{cite book |last1=Holmes |first1=Oliver Wendell |title=Elsie Venner |date=1859 |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Elsie_Venner/Chapter_XIV |accessdate=30 December 2018}}</ref>

Poorer people used small bulbous and handleless earthenware cups, often painted with the monarch.  In the early 18th century lidded "spout pots" were used; these were two-handled with a teapot-style spout on one of the other sides.<ref>Hughes, 187, 144</ref> As European [[porcelain]] developed in the 18th century, the two-handled cup with a cover, similar to the shape called a "chocolate cup" in continental examples, but often more bulbous, became the usual form of caudle cup, now with a saucer.  These were typically highly decorated with [[overglaze enamel]] painting, and presented by the wealthy in pairs to new mothers.  They were now smaller, and probably for individual use.  Other than their use when lying-in, they functioned as [[cabinet cup]]s, too ornate and expensive for regular use, and displayed in a [[china cabinet]]. In a London auction of [[Chelsea porcelain]] and [[Derby porcelain]] in 1771 the most expensive examples were sold for £12 for a pair, a considerable sum. They continued to be made through the 19th century as cabinet pieces, after the custom of consuming caudle largely died away.<ref>Hughes, 144-146</ref>

At lower levels of society, an alternative pottery gift to bring to a lying-in caudle party was a model [[Cradle (bed)|cradle]] complete with baby, into which coins or a small gift were added. These were rarely of fine porcelain.<ref>Hughes, 156-158</ref>

==Other uses==
A caudle formed part of the [[Beltane]] (May Day) [[fire festival]] celebrations collated by [[James George Frazer|James Frazier]] in ''[[The Golden Bough]]''. He quotes at length [[Thomas Pennant]], "who traveled in Perthshire in the year 1769": <blockquote>on the first of May, the herdsmen of every village hold their Bel-tien, a rural sacrifice. They cut a square trench on the ground, leaving the turf in the middle; on that they make a fire of wood, on which they dress a large caudle of eggs, butter, oatmeal and milk; and bring besides the ingredients of the caudle, plenty of beer and whisky; for each of the company must contribute something. The rites begin with spilling some of the caudle on the ground, by way of libation: on that everyone takes a cake of oatmeal, upon which are raised nine square knobs, each dedicated to some particular being, the supposed preserver of their flocks and herds, or to some particular animal, the real destroyer of them: each person then turns his face to the fire, breaks off a knob, and flinging it over his shoulders, says, 'This I give to thee, preserve thou my horses; this to thee, preserve thou my sheep; and so on.' After that, they use the same ceremony to the noxious animals: 'This I give to thee, O fox! spare thou my lambs; this to thee, O hooded crow! this to thee, O eagle!' When the ceremony is over, they dine on the caudle; and after the feast is finished, what is left is hid by two persons deputed for that purpose; but on the next Sunday they reassemble, and finish the reliques of the first entertainment.</blockquote>

Frazier notes other Scottish May Day celebrations with similar dishes, "a repast of eggs and milk in the consistence of a custard".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Frazier |first1=James |title=The Golden Bough |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Golden_Bough/The_Fire-Festivals_of_Europe#4._The_Beltane_Fires |accessdate=30 December 2018}}</ref>

Apparently it was "a custom in France to bring the bridegroom a caudle in the middle of the night on his wedding-night", according to an explanatory note in an 1877 edition of ''[[Essays (Montaigne)|The Essays of Montaigne]]'', presumably inserted by the English editor, [[William Carew Hazlitt]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Montaigne |title=Essays |edition=1877 |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Essays_of_Montaigne/Book_I/Chapter_XX |accessdate=30 December 2018}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{commons category}}
{{portal|Drink}}
* [[List of hot beverages]]
* [[Wassail]]
* [[Groaning food]], another British tradition following childbirth

== Notes ==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book|author=Thomas Austin|title=Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books|url=https://archive.org/details/twofifteenthcent00aust|year=1888|publisher=Early English Text Society|isbn=978-5-87685-811-5| ref={{sfnref|Austin|1888}} }}
* {{cite book|author= William Carew Hazlitt|title=Old Cookery Books and Ancient Cuisine|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12293|year=1886|ref={{sfnref|Hazlitt|1886}}}}
* {{cite book|author1=Constance B. Hieatt|author2=Sharon Butler|title=Curye on Inglysch: English culinary manuscripts of the fourteenth century (including the Forme of cury)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eSJ3ngEACAAJ|year=1985|publisher=Early English Text Society|isbn=978-0-19-722409-0| ref={{sfnref|Hieatt and Butler|1985}} }}
* {{cite book|author1=Constance B. Hieatt|author2=Eulalia Pensado|title=An Ordinance of pottage: an edition of the fifteenth century culinary recipes in Yale University's Ms Beinecke 163|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=opMgAQAAIAAJ|year=1988|publisher=Prospect Books and Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library|isbn=978-0-907325-38-3| ref={{sfnref|Hieatt and Pensado|1988}} }}
* {{cite web|last=Harper|first=Douglas|title=Online Etymology Dictionary: caudle|url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=caudle&searchmode=none|accessdate=21 November 2012}}
*Hughes, G Bernard, ''The Country Life Pocket Book of China'', 1965, Country Life Ltd
* {{cite book|author1=Rudolf Grewe|author2=Constance B. Hieatt|title=Libellus De Arte Coquinaria: An Early Northern Cookery Book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7u7gAAAAMAAJ|year=2001|publisher=Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies|isbn=978-0-86698-264-1 | ref={{sfnref|Grewe and Hieatt|2001}} }}
* {{cite book|author=Michael Olmert|title=Milton's teeth & Ovid's umbrella: curiouser and curiouser adventures in history|url=https://archive.org/details/miltonsteethovid00olme|url-access=registration|year=1996|publisher=Simon & Schuster|isbn=978-0-684-80164-3 | ref={{sfnref|Olmert|1996}} }}
{{refend}}

[[Category:Dairy products]]
[[Category:Historical alcoholic drinks]]
[[Category:Mixed drinks]]
[[Category:Hot drinks]]
[[Category:Childbirth]]
[[Category:Egg dishes]]
[[Category:Metonymy]]
[[Category:Maternity in the United Kingdom]]