Hildegard von Bingen Recipes in the Physica

In the works of Hildegard von Bingen, numerous recipes can be found. This primarily refers to the works Physica, which deals with natural science, as well as Causae et curae about medicine.

Hildegards Tipp:

• Valuable Bitter Substances According to Hildegard von Bingen
• A recipe based on 800 years of monastic knowledge
• Used by 4,000 alternative practitioners
• The Best in Natural Medicine: Organic & Vegan

Hildegard von Bingen Recipes in the Physica

In the Physica, Hildegard usually names individual plants, which she characterizes as cold to warm and describes. This is followed by instructions for use or preparation. The important spelt is mentioned here by its alternative name husk. In section 5, she attributes "warm" to spelt and praises it as the best grain crop. It is fatty and strong as well as more pleasant than other cereals. However, she does not provide a specific recipe at this point. Those who are too weak to eat should take a drink made from cooked spelt with egg yolk.

It is different with the ginger family galangal. Here she recommends a powder made of galangal and fennel in equal parts against bad breath, seasoned with twice as much nutmeg as lovage root. The mixture is served with bread and followed by warm wine. Galangal and lovage are typical, now almost forgotten spices in Hildegard von Bingen's recipes.

The third very important spice is the equally rare wild thyme. However, we can more easily classify it by its Latin name, which is Thymus serpyllum and refers to the thymes. While we usually have common thyme (Thymus vulgaris L.) in the kitchen, Hildegard's wild thyme is also called wild thyme, field thyme, or sand thyme today.

Rue, wine rue, or garden rue is another herb that, despite its high content of essential oils, coumarins, quinoline alkaloids, and flavonoids, is hardly used today.

Another Hildegard von Bingen recipe is said to help with liver complaints caused by a too rich diet. For this, one part coltsfoot and two parts plantain root are crushed so that the herbs can still be pierced. The leaves of a mistletoe on pear are then pulled through them. The whole is soaked together with part of a walnut leaf or twig in wine, which is drunk before or after breakfast.

The past cannot always be transported into the present

This recipe example shows some features that should not go unmentioned: Some ingredients, like pear mistletoe, which appear in Hildegard von Bingen recipes, are now difficult to identify. Some instructions, such as piercing crushed herbs to pull leaves through them, are not easy to understand. Finally, some ingredients like wine for liver ailments are less helpful according to current knowledge.