Strong Mead

Ingredients

• Take of spring-water what quantity you please
• put to about nine or ten gallons, seven or eight large blades of mace
• three nutmegs quarter’d
• twenty cloves
• three or four sticks of cinamon
• two or three roots of ginger
• a whole lemon
• a sprig of sweet-briar
• a sprig of rosemary

Method

1. 1

   Make the water blood-warm and dissolve honey until it can bear an egg.

2. 2

   Boil gently for an hour, skimming off the scum.

3. 3

   Add spices and a whole lemon, boil briefly, then strain into a clean earthen pot.

4. 4

   Let it sit overnight, then bottle after three months.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Old Cookery Books and Ancient Cuisine (1886) by William Carew Hazlitt, page 46. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

strong Mead: — Take of spring- water what quantity you please, and make it more than blood-warm, and dissolve honey in it till ’tis strong enough to bear an egg, the breadth of a shilling ; then boil it gently near an hour, taking off the scum as it rises ; then put to about nine or ten gallons, seven or eight large blades of mace, three nutmegs quarter’d, twenty cloves, three or four sticks of cinamon, two or three roots of ginger, and a quarter of an ounce of Jamaica pepper ; put these spices into the kettle to the honey and water, a whole lemon, with a sprig of sweet- briar, and a sprig of rosemary

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.