Syrup of Lavender (Halhâl)

iStock: English Lavender

According to Culpepper “lavender is of a special good use for all the griefs and pains of the head and brain that proceed of a cold cause, as the apoplexy, falling-sickness, the dropsy or sluggish malady, cramps, convulsion palsies and often faintings. It strengthens the stomach, and frees the liver and the spleen from obstructions, provokes women’s courses and expels the dead child and afterbirth. The flowers of Lavender steeped in wine, helps them to make water that are stopped, or are troubled with the wind or colic.”

Hildegard von Bingen says that lavender was considered a hot and dry herb in relation to humoral theory. When Spike Lavender was cooked in wine or water it would supposedly lessen the pain in the liver and lungs and the stuffiness in the chest. As well as making one’s thinking and disposition pure. 

Main Components/Ingredients

Lavender: Lavender had a number of medicinal applications as well as household uses. It could be used against pains in the heart, fainting spells, and sleeplessness; it was applied to the forehead for headache and included in antidotes. It was used internally as well as externally, and a decoction was drunk for epilepsy and kidney ailments and as a preventative for apoplexy. 

Honey: honey is a naturally occurring food with superb health benefits that are still used today. Honey has been used for centuries as a therapeutic antioxidant and used to treat cough, fever, asthma, wound healing, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antifungal, antiviral and as an antidiabetic.

 

Original Source

Syrup of Lavender

Take a ratl of lavender and cook it in enough water to cover it until its substance comes out. Then take the clear part of it and add it to a ratl of honey. Cook all this until it takes the form of a syrup.

Drink an ûqiya and a half of this with hot water..

It’s advantages are in cleaning the brain and the stomach, it lightens the body and dries up the black bile gently but contracts the breath, and it is filling. To regulate, drink with a cheering drink or cheering water.

~ The Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook, 13^th Century

Ratl; 468g/1lb
ûqiya: 39g/7 tsp

Redaction 1 (November 2024, to exact measures in recipe)

Take 468g of dried lavender and cook it in 1.5L of water until it begins to have its substance come out. Then take the clean part (filter) and add it to 486g of white sugar. Cook all this until it takes the form of a syrup. 

Bottle and use within 7-10 days. 

Redaction 2 (April 2025, smaller measures)

Take 100g of dried lavender and 1 L of water and bring to the boil in a pot on the stove. Boil for about 5 minutes or so. 

Filter/strain out the liquid and take out the lavender. Squeeze if you would like (I did not and it yielded 350mls of liquid). 

Take 500g of sugar and ½ cup water and on a low heat, dissolve the sugar in the water and bring to a gentle boil. Add the lavender water and bring to the boil and cook until desired syrup consistency (about 5 minutes). 

Cool and bottle. Serve within 7-10 days. Makes approx. 600mls. 

 

Changes Made

I used dried lavender due to the availability of the ingredient and substituted white sugar for honey due to the cost of honey (and I had plenty of white sugar in the house). Like the Syrup of Roses I made the original recipe to the original measures and again I was worried that I would not have a pot large enough (the largest pot was being used at the time to make the syrup of roses). Thankfully the lavender does not float as much as the roses did and I was able to use less water, though next time I would add more water to infuse the flavour, as I put 1L of water into the pot and only got about ⅓ back. 

NOTE:
Notes on the original source:

The version of the Anonymous Andalusian used is an English translation of the text by Charles Perry, working from the original Arabic, a printed copy of the Arabic and its translation into Spanish, and assisted by an English translation by various persons translating collaboratively the text from Spanish to English.

Originally, the book was compiled by a scribe in the 1400s and includes recipes that are copied from older works that go back until the 1200s.

The book’s title was orginially: Kitab al tabij fi-l-Maghrib wa-l-Andalus fi `asr al-Muwahhidin, li-mu'allif mayhul (or majhul).

Meaning:

The Book of Cooking in Maghreb and Andalus in the era of Almohads, by an unknown author.

It is commonly known in English today as: The Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook.

 

 

References

Abbas A, Ghozy S, Minh L, Hashan M, Soliman A, Van N, et al. Honey in bronchial asthma: from folk tales to scientifc facts. J Med Food. 2019;22(6):543–50.

Ahmed S, Sulaiman S, Baig A, Ibrahim M, Liaqat S, Fatima S, et al. Honey as a potential natural antioxidant medicine: an insight into its molecular mechanisms of action. Oxid Med Cell Longev. 2018;2018:1–19.

Culpepper, N. (1653), Complete Herbal & English Physician, Applewood Books, Bedford, MA

Manuscrito Anonimo (13th c. Andalusian.) An Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook of the Thirteenth Century, a translation by Charles Perry of the Arabic edition of Ambrosio Huici Miranda with the assistance of an English translation by Elise Fleming, Stephen Bloch, Habib ibn al-Andalusi and Janet Hinson of the Spanish translation by Ambrosio Huici Miranda, published in full in the 5th edition of volume II of the cookbook collection.

Measuring the Medieval Islamic Economy, Western Social Science,  Weights and Measures, Various Sources, https://medievalislamiceconomy.uwo.ca/measures/Weights-Measures-Various-Sources.xlsx

Von Bingen, H. (1151/1158), Throop, P. (1998 - Translation) Hildegard von Bingen's Physica: The Complete English Translation of her Classic Work on Health and Healing