Silver Caudle Cup
The caudle cup was an English silver form dating to the late 17th century that usually had a gourd shaped body with two handles and a cover. It reached it’s height of popularity during the reign of Charles II. Next to the tankard it was considered an indispensable possession of every English household. It was possibly used to serve caudle which was a warm ale or wine concoction of bread, gruel, eggs, sugar and spices. This Medieval comfort food was served to women after childbirth and to convalescents, or as a nightcap said to alleviate insomnia, somewhat like today’s remedy for some who drink hot milk to help them get to sleep. Samuel Pepys writes in his diary of 1659 that he “went to bed and got a caudle made for me and slept upon it very well.”
Caudle cups were also made by Colonial silversmiths in New England dating to the 1660′s and were of course patterned after the English form and decorations. Some of the decorations on the Colonial caudle cups did resemble the decorations on chests and other New England furniture. Many of these caudle cups were listed in family inventories and were bequeathed to the families church and may have been used as sacramental vessels. This may account for the scarcity of these cups.
Caudle, a popular Middle Ages hot drink supposedly used for its medicinal properties, is found in the The Oxford English Dictionary and dates the use of the word to 1297. One recorded recipe for caudle traced back to the early 1300′s lists the ingredients of wine, wheat starch, raisins, and sugar “to abate the strength of the wine”. A later and much more appetizing sounding recipe from the 14th century included more ingredients and details for the cooking procedure; mix breadcrumbs, wine, sugar or honey, saffron, bring to a boil, then thicken with egg yolks and sprinkle with salt, sugar and ginger (oatmeal with a kick). Other later recipes also included ground almonds and spices were optional.
One can imagine that adding these various ingredients to wine and boiling it would cause the mixture to “curdle”, thus a variation of caudle.
Some information referenced in Historic Silver of the Colonies and Its Makers, 1948, by Francis Hill Bigelow.
April, 2008.