Parks Canada Heritage Gourmet Recipes

Rosolio

With its touch of maple, this thirst quencher was much appreciated by settlers in New France.

Origin: Maple products national historic event
Region: Quebec
Period: 18th century
Course: Beverages and Other
Difficulty Rating: 1

In Canada, it was only natural that rosolio would be made with maple sugar. In 1691, Chrestine Leclerc said that mixed maple sugar with eau de vie, cloves and cinnamon, “which made a very pleasant sort of rosolio”. In the eighteenth century, maple syrup was mixed with cold water and maidenhair fern syrup, another local product, to make a thirst-quenching drink.

Natives making maple syrup. From an engraving in Lafitau's Moeurs des sauvages amériquains, 1724.
© Parks Canada

Rosolio

Ingredients:

2 cups | 500 mL eau-de-vie (brandy)
3 cloves
5 black peppercorns
1 stick cinnamon
12 coriander seeds
1 tsp | 5 mL aniseed
4 oz | 125 g maple sugar, grated

Instructions:

Place all the ingredients in a bowl and let stand for 4 hours. Strain and bottle.

Credits:

Recipe tested by Yvon Desloges et Marc Lafrance, historians at Parks Canada.
This recipe is adapted from the book A Taste of History: The Origins of Quebec's Gastronomy. Yvon Desloges and Marc Lafrance. Éditions de la Chenelière. Montréal 1989. English-French book. ISBN : 2-89310-028-7. The authors found the original recipe inMassialot's Nouvelles instructions pour le confitures, which dates to 1703.