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Drink

Saksapabilla Mead

A fermented beverage made from sarsaparilla, water, sugar, tartaric acid, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Saksapabilla Mead

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Boil the Spanish sarsaparilla in 4 gallons of water for 5 hours.

  2. Add enough water to make a total of 2 gallons.

Sweeten and acidify

  1. Stir in the sugar and tartaric acid until dissolved.

Serve

  1. To serve, take ⅓ cup of the mixture, fill the rest of the tumbler with water, and add ½ teaspoon of baking soda.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Spanish sarsaparilla
Provides the main flavor of the drink as it boils into the water.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and body to balance the tartness of the acid.
Tartaric acid
Adds tartness and reacts with baking soda to create fizz.
Baking soda
Reacts with the tartaric acid to release carbon dioxide, producing fizz.

The step that matters

Adding the baking soda at serving. Baking soda reacts with the acid right away, releasing carbon dioxide bubbles. Adding it just before serving keeps the fizz lively, since the bubbles escape as the drink sits.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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