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Herbs & Cultures

Anglo-Saxon medicine →

Horehound drink from the Leechbook

'Boil horehound in water, a good deal of it, sweeten a little': a cough drink a thousand years old.

Traditional use

Time
15 minutes
Makes
2 cups
White horehound

Bald's Leechbook is an Old English handbook from the tenth century. In its third part, under 'for cough', there is a simple recipe: boil a good amount of horehound in water, sweeten it a little and give the sick person a cupful to drink. The next recipe advises boiling horehound in honey with a little butter, and taking another cup of the warm drink at night on an empty stomach. Horehound is still used in cough syrups and throat sweets.

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp dried horehound or a handful of fresh leaves
  • 500 ml water
  • 1–2 tsp honey

Step by step

  1. Bring the water with the horehound to the boil and simmer for 5–10 minutes.
  2. Strain and stir in a little honey: horehound is very bitter.
  3. Drink a cup warm, and another before bed if you like.

Tips

  • The second recipe, horehound boiled in honey with a little butter, is much like the horehound sweets still sold today.

Registry

Herbs in this recipe

Read more about effects and safety on each herb’s page.

  • Caution

    Europe · Herb · № 113

    White horehound

    Marrubium vulgare

    A bitter herb traditionally used for coughs with sticky phlegm and bronchitis. In Europe it is recognised as a traditional herbal medicine; clinical evidence is limited.

    Greco-Roman medicine+3Folklore

Cultures and traditions

Where the herbs come from

The herbs in this recipe also appear in these traditions.