Caudle facts for kids

The Holyoke Caudle Cup, a silver cup from around 1690, made by John Coney. It's now at the Fogg Art Museum.

A painting by Jan Steen from 1668, called 'The Caudle Makers'.

A caudle was a warm, thick, and sweet drink that was popular in British cuisine for many centuries, from the Middle Ages all the way to Victorian times. People often thought it was especially good for people who were sick or for new mothers, as it was believed to be very nourishing. Sometimes, caudle recipes were made with milk and eggs, a bit like eggnog. Other times, it was more like a thin gruel, which is a drinkable porridge made from oats. Caudle, like early forms of posset (a drink made with wine and milk), usually contained alcohol.

What's in a Caudle?

A silver spoon from the 17th century, used for eating caudle.

The earliest known recipe for caudle, from the early 1300s, was quite simple. It listed wine, wheat starch, raisins, and sugar. The sugar was added "to abate the strength of the wine," meaning to make the wine less strong.

Later recipes, from the late 1300s, became more detailed. They included ingredients like breadcrumbs, wine, sugar or honey, and saffron. These were boiled together, then thickened with egg yolks. Finally, salt, sugar, and ginger were sprinkled on top.

By the 1400s, English cookbooks had several caudle recipes. They often used ale or wine, thickened with egg yolks or ground almonds. Spices like sugar, honey, saffron, and ginger were added for flavor. One recipe even said "no salt." In the 1600s, caudle was described as a "syrupy gruel" with spices and wine or ale.

Why People Drank Caudle

Caudle was often given to people who needed to regain their strength. This included people who were ill and, very commonly, new mothers. In Georgian England, which was from 1714 to 1837, hospitals for new mothers always served a "traditional postlabor fortified caudle" to women who had just given birth.

For example, at the British Lying-In Hospital, there were rules about what patients could eat. Mothers on a "low diet" received caudle. When they moved to a "common diet," they got beer caudle. Once they were on a "full diet," they no longer needed the special drink.

Many popular cookbooks from the 1800s included recipes for "caudle for the sick and lying-in." "Lying-in" was an old term for childbirth, referring to the time a new mother spent resting in bed after giving birth. These cookbooks often put caudle in sections for "recipes for invalids," showing it was seen as a healing or strengthening food.

One cookbook from 1851, The English Housekeeper, even had a whole chapter on food for sick people. It explained that a good nurse should prepare "cooling drinks and restorative foods" for patients. It also said that food for sick people should always be clean, served quickly, look nice, and be given in small amounts.

Caudle Parties

This picture by Richard Dagley shows a "caudle party." The new mother is resting in bed, and a visitor is drinking caudle with a family member. A maid shows the baby to the visitor.

Since caudle was given to new mothers to help them recover, it was also offered to their visitors. This was a way to celebrate the happy occasion of a new baby. The phrases "cake and caudle" or "taking caudle" became common ways to describe a visit to a new mother and her baby.

These visits were usually only for women. Men often noted that they were not invited to these "all-female occasions." For example, in a play from 1787 called The Contrast, a female character refuses a man's offer to walk her somewhere by saying that "half [her] visits are cake and caudle," meaning they were not suitable for him.

This tradition of offering cake and caudle to visitors after a birth was a very old British custom. Even royalty followed it! After the christening of Princess Amelia in 1783, the youngest child of King George III and Queen Charlotte, most of the guests visited the nursery. There, they were served "cake and caudle" as was the custom. This continued into Queen Victoria's time. The day after she gave birth to the Prince of Wales, many noblewomen visited Buckingham Palace. They were served caudle and then taken to see the baby prince.

It wasn't just nobles who came to these events. The public was also sometimes invited to royal "cake and caudle" receptions. In 1765, the London Chronicle reported that "The resort of different ranks of people at St. James's to receive the Queen's Caudle is now very great."

Sometimes, funny things happened at these parties. After the birth of Princess Augusta Sophia in 1768, two young ladies were caught trying to take home a large piece of cake and some of the caudle cups! They were let go with a strong warning after they apologized.

The custom of caudle parties died out in England around 1850. However, in the Netherlands, a similar tradition called candeel continued. When the current King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands was born in 1967, a few days later, a formal candeel party was held. It included his father, the Prime Minister, and other important people. They wore formal clothes and ate candeel with small spoons from fancy cups. This event was held at the Utrecht city hall, where the new prince's birth was officially registered. His mother, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, also had a candeel party after her birth in 1938.

Caudle Cups

A caudle cup made of Worcester porcelain from 1805.

An earthenware caudle cup from the 1660s, showing King Charles II of England. This cup is at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

There were special cups made just for drinking caudle, called caudle cups. These were often given as gifts to pregnant women or to new mothers when friends visited them. In the late 1600s and early 1700s, silver caudle cups were low, round bowls with two handles and often a lid. These cups were passed around among the guests.

Poorer people used smaller, round earthenware cups without handles, often painted with pictures of the king or queen. In the early 1700s, lidded "spout pots" were used. These had two handles and a spout like a teapot.

As porcelain became more common in Europe in the 1700s, the two-handled cup with a lid, often with a saucer, became the usual style for caudle cups. These porcelain cups were typically very fancy, decorated with colorful paintings. Wealthy families would often give them in pairs to new mothers. These cups were smaller and likely for one person to use. Besides being used after childbirth, they were also displayed in china cabinets because they were too fancy and expensive for everyday use. Even after people stopped drinking caudle often, these cups continued to be made as decorative items throughout the 1800s.

For people with less money, another common gift to bring to a caudle party was a small model of a cradle with a baby inside. People would put coins or a small gift into these cradles. These were usually not made of fine porcelain.

Other Uses for Caudle

Caudle was also part of the Beltane (May Day) fire festival celebrations in Scotland. In 1769, a traveler named Thomas Pennant described how herdsmen would make a large caudle of eggs, butter, oatmeal, and milk over a fire. They would also bring beer and whisky. Everyone had to contribute something.

The celebration began with pouring some of the caudle on the ground as an offering. Then, each person took an oatmeal cake with nine square bumps on it. Each bump was for a different being, either a protector of their animals or an animal that might harm them. People would turn to the fire, break off a bump, throw it over their shoulder, and say things like, "This I give to thee, preserve thou my horses." They would do the same for harmful animals, saying, "This I give to thee, O fox! spare thou my lambs." After this ceremony, they would eat the caudle.

It was also a custom in France for people to bring the groom a caudle in the middle of the night on his wedding night.