Eau De Cologne (1824)

The New Family Receipt Book (1824), pg 233-4

504. Eau de Cologne
Mix rectified spirit of wine, thirteen pounds; Hungary water, three pounds and a half; spirit of wine distilled from balm leaves, two pounds; essence of bergamot, three ounces; orange flower water, one pound; essence of lemon, an ounce; and essence of rosemary, a drachm. Shake this mixture well together in a large bottle and the liquor is made. It will in this ready way be very delicate and answer every requisite purpose but if superior delicacy be desired it may be obtained by distilling the above mixture or rather double the quantity of each ingredient in a gentle sand heat so as to draw off all the liquor with the exception of only two quarts left behind in the still.

Proportionately, that's 1 part rosemary to 8 parts lemon to 24 bergamot to 96 orange flower water to 192 balm to 336 Hungary water to 1248 spirits of wine. [See Hungary water post for apothecary measures]. For my initial batch here, I used 1 drop of essence of rosemary (in pipette that deliver 1/20 ml drops), and the rest in proportion.  Lacking a still (still), I ended up soaking lemon balm leaves in alcohol for a week to serve as the "spirit of wine distilled from balm leaves".  The result smelled nicely of lemon balm.

Eau de Cologne and the Hungary water used in it.
The cologne has a slight pink tint from the alkanet in the Hungary water.

The overall effect is interesting. I discovered that putting the liquid on a handkerchief makes a huge difference in the scent (the alcohol evaporates, so the others come through clearer)*.  I definitely picked out the rosemary and citrus elements, but overall it's hard to describe the scent--to me, at least, it's not so much a bouquet of recognizable odors, but rather a new scent, where whole > sum of parts.

I did find it interesting that this receipt duplicated the rosemary, which is both in the Hungary water and added to the Cologne as an oil.  The single drop of rosemary oil, however, initially overwhelmed everything else present.  In some other Hungary water receipts, the only scent is rosemary, which could be interesting to experiment with, and see how the Cologne differs in such a case.

I like this Eau de Cologne, and will definitely be using it as my scent of choice for history events (though the Hungary water on its own is very nice, too).

*Also, about 30 hours later, the handkerchief still smells like Eau de Cologne; the Hungary water handkerchief lasted an evening, but had faded by the next.