I was having a moan yesterday about having had a sleepless night because I had an annoying cough. I wasn’t ill or poorly, I just had this annoying tickle. It subsequently added a very runny nose and steaming eyes and I began to think I was having a reaction to pollen which apparently had a very high count over the last few days. I am fortunate not to have suffered from hay-fever previously, but I reckon there was something which was upsetting my eyes, nose and throat. I am also fortunate that although annoying (especially for husband who had to suffer my explosive coughing) I was not ill, just weary from it. Thankfully, apart from a croaky voice, I’m much improved today.

I was looking through some old Australian newspapers and in the Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser’ of 1831, I came across this recipe for homemade cough mixture.

Elixir de Garus – The following recipe for making Elixir de Garus, which has such reputation in France for the cure of coughs and colds, is given in the Journal des Connaissances Usuelles-
Saffron 8 drachms, cinnamon 6, cloves 5, nutmegs 1, aloes 1, myrrh 1, alcohol at 32 deg. 10 pints.
Let these be well steeped for four days, and then distilled in a vessel placed in boiling water, and the liquid rectified, adding a quart of water. Then take 4 ounces of Canadian capillaire and let them infuse for four-and-twenty hours ; strain, and add 12 pounds of white sugar, and 1 of orange-flower water. Let the sugar melt in cold water, put in the alcohol, with 2 drachms of saffron ; and after remaining ten days, filter it, when it will be fit for use.

Plenty to puzzle over! The recipe came from ‘Journal des connaissances usuelles et pratiques’ and it had a bye-line explaining it was a ‘collection of notions immediately useful to the needs and enjoyments of all classes of society, made available to all intelligences.’  The first volume was published in 1825, six years before the recipe appeared in the Australian newspaper.

I can’t find anything to explain what Garus meant, maybe it was just a name, but this mixture sounds mighty powerful! We might very well make a drink for coughs and colds using saffron, cinnamon, cloves and nutmegs – but where would we find myrrh? Bitter aloes as we now know them are a purgative… I’m not sure that would be wise if you had a cough! However, these spices were to be soaked in ten (10) pints of alcohol for four days before being distilled and then ‘rectified’ with two pints of water. Canadian capillaire, a syrup made from maidenhair which I understand is ginko,  was to be infused – I presume in the distilled and rectified alcohol. Once strained, it’s mixed with 12 pounds of sugar which has been melted in cold water, and 1 pound of orange-flower water, and 2 drachms (1/4 ounce) of saffron. Ten more days then it’s filtered and ready for use! By which time you’d probably covered from your cough and cold!

I could find no suitable image to feature, so have used an image from an 1830’s cookery book of cooks using a tammy – which is a way you could strain or filter something!