Cassell's dictionary of cookery

Mead, To Prepare (another way). — The following is one of the most approved methods of brewing mead: — Let the whites of six eggs be well incorporated with twelve gallons of ■water, to which add twenty pounds of honey. Boil these ingredients for an hour, then put into the liquor a little ginger, clove, cinnamon, and mace, together with a small sprig of rosejna^ry. As soon as the liquor is cool, add a spoonful of yeast, and pour the mead into a vessel, which should be filled up while it works. When the fermentation ceases, close the cask, and deposit it for six or eight months in a vault or cellar of an equal temperature, and in which the liquor will not be liable to be affected by the changes of the weather. At the end of that time it may be bottled, and will then be fit for use. A more simple, and to some palates more agreeable, method, is to mix the honey in the proportion of one pound to a quart of water, which is to be boiled, scummed, and fermented in the usual manner, without the addition of any aromatic substances. It ought to be preserved in a similar manner, and bottled at the expiration of the same time. Mead Wine. — To ten gallons of water put ten pounds of honey and a quarter of a pound of good hops ; boil for an hour, and when cooled to the warmth of new milk, ferment with yeast spread on a toast. Let it stand in the tub two days ; then put it into the cask. The wine will be fit for bottling in twelve months. Honey of a year old is better for this purpose than new. Meagre Soup (Soupe Maigre). — Before beginning, wash thoroughly all your green vegetables, peel your roots, and throw them into cold water. The proportions of each must depend very much upon what you can get. The soup, when finished, should be of the thickness of ordinary pea-soup. Take five or six handfuls of common sorrel, two large lettuces from which the withered leaves only have been removed, a small bunch of chervdl, and two or three sprigs of parsley. Shred all these very fine. Slice and chop onions, carrots, and leeks very fine. Throw these into your soup-kettle of boiling water, with some whole potatoes of a mealy sort, a bay-leaf, a sprig of thyme, and a good lump of butter. Season with pepper and salt. Stir from time to time, to prevent any of the ingredients from sticking to the bottom. When they are thoroughly cooked, crush as many potatoes as you want to thicken the soup ; the others may be served up with fish or eggs, or -with meat. The soup may be also thickened with bread — -which makes it more nourishing — steeped in a little of the liquor, and then broken up and mixed with the soup. Meal Fritters, Indian {see Indian Meal). Meal Pudding (American).— A breakfast - cupful of Indian corn-meal and a tea-spoonful of salt, mixed with boiling milk, makes a 2)udding much liked by the Americans; and, when enriched with eggs, of which there should be four to this quantity of meal, it cannot fail to please almost any palate. The eggs must not be added until the mixture has cooled. Boil in a buttered mould, and serve with syrup and butter, or -with any sweet sauce. Time, two hours and a half in a mould. A quart of milk is sufficient for the above ingredients.