The ancient recipe of alkermes has a colorful history. Originally formulated by a 9th century Persian physician in the court of the caliph of Bagdad as a medicinal elixir for the elite, the sensual ingredients used in the Persian recipe read like a formula for an exotic perfume; aloes, ambergris, apple juice, cinnamon, gold leaf, honey, musk, powdered lapis lazuli, crushed pearls, raw silk, and rosewater. Cochineal, a red coloring additive made from dried insects, provided the intoxicating scarlet color to alkermes (also written alchermes). The name alkermes refers to the carmine color and either comes from cochineal’s Arabic counterpart, kermes, which in turn get its name from the Middle Persian word quermez, meaning bloody, crimson or red or from the Spanish ‘alquermes‘ from the Arabic ‘quirmiz’ or scarlet.
The scarlet elixir of Arabic origin made its way to the formulary of the monks of Florence’s Santa Maria Novella. The insect based powdered red colorant was infused into neutral spirits with herbs and spices such as garofano (clove oil), orange, cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg and coriander in a refined Renaissance recipe favored by Caterina de’Medici so much so that in France is was known as the ‘liqueur of the Medici’.
Alkermes became an essential ingredient in many Italian pastries including zuppa inglese, Florentine zuccotto and pesche di Prato, a peach-shaped cookies made by joining together two rounded cookies with a creamy filling, then dipping them in alchermes and rolling them in sugar. Traditional Carnevale sweets like castagnole, sweet fritters rolled in sugar, are drizzled with alkermes giving them a scarlet blush. Alkermes can be difficult to find out side of Italy and many recipes now recommend using a mix of brandy and pomegranate syrup to achieve the red color. There is also a liquer (Alchermes liqueur de’ Medici Firenze) or Tuscan Alkermes that can be found in some liquor stores.
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