Discovery: Secret Liquor Recipe Booklet of a Jewish Industrialist

Discovery: Secret Liquor Recipe Booklet of a Jewish Industrialist

"Rav Papa: My wealth started from when I began producing alcoholic beverages" (Talmud Bavli)

Bundle of manuscripts handwritten on over 100 pages written in very clear detail, with dozens of recipes and instructions for producing hard liquors that were consumed at the time. Ashkenazic script, written across the period by various writers. [19th century.] Hebrew and Yiddish. Rare remnant of a profession that is almost completely obselete. 

This manuscript consists of many dozens of recipes for preparing hard liquors of the 19th century. There are recipes for preparation of shichar, rum, bronfin, koas, liquor, Passover liquor, zammen liquor [vegetation liquor]" rosenwasser [rose water], coffee schvartz bren [roasted black coffee], "preparation of fig liquor, " "preparation of raisin liquor, " "shmarim maltz min chittin [malt wheat yeast]"  and many more. There are also two medical prescription recipes included among the leaves.

This manuscript was apparently the property of a Jewish industrial family who produced wholesale liquors, (and not for the tenant "Kreitshma" [Beit Mizrach] who would sell his homemade drinks to local gentiles). On page 27a and on page 31b, the recipes include diagrams of industrial distillation machines for the production of hard liquor, one of which is based on gears. The recipes are very professional, not homemade.

To our chagrin, this manuscript was made for personal use only. It naturally includes professional secrets, but it is not signed. However, there are several names and hints that appear along the leaves, such as: page 3a: "But R' Meir told me ..." "Address in Munkacs - Pesach Ostreich ben R' Mordechai" is written in two places. Another hint appears on page 46a, written on the back of a letter that was sent from Tiberias in 1872 addressed to Rabbi Meir (this may be the factory owner). This letter sent from Tiberias also mentions the names: "The avreich Rabbi Yitzchak Zachs" and "The great light, R' Mordechai Lipschitz."

Production of wine and hard liquor is one of the oldest professions in the world. The large production companies maintain reputations that include hundreds of years of knowledge as a mark of quality for the drinks they produce - the more, the better. It was also a distinctly Jewish profession both because of the unique laws of yayin nesech associated with it, and because of the knowledge and sophistication involved in its production. Already in the Gemara in tractate Rosh HaShanah (leaf 113), the amora Rav Papa, who was extremely wealthy, states that his wealth derives solely from the production of alcohol: 'Rav Papa said, "E la darmai shikra la iatri" (Tosafot asks there, given that a person's wealth is determined on Rosh Hashanah, how does Rav Papa attribute his wealth to wine production? ... (see the Tosafot there)),

The profession of liquor production has many secrets that pass from father to son through the generations of industrialists. Accordingly, the prices range from the price of a simple and cheap wine to liquors that cost thousands of dollars. Currently, the vast majority of the process of preparing the drinks is done mechanically, but there are still those who prepare them independently all across France and Italy. Here are authentic recipes for the production of real and traditional liquor, just as it was produced in the 19th century.

Provenance: Michael Krupp Collection, National Library, Israel.

[108] written pages. Various sizes. Owners' stamps: "Chaim Yitzchak Chertnick, Jerusalem."

Overall moderate condition. Stains and wear in the margins of the leaves. Some of the leaves are detached. Tears (some of which are partially lacking). Placed in a designated period cardboard file.