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Drink

Sack Mead

A fermented honey beverage made with water, hops, brandy, and lemon juice, aged in a cask.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Brandy and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,635 recipes. Both carry 2-heptanol, which smells bitter, floral. The science ↓

Sack Mead

Ingredients

Directions

Make the must

  1. Combine 1 gallon of water and 4 pounds of honey in a large pot.

  2. Boil for 45 minutes.

  3. Skim off any foam.

  4. Add 1 ounce of hops.

  5. Boil for an additional 30 minutes.

  6. Let the mixture cool and stand overnight.

Ferment and age

  1. Transfer to a cask.

  2. Add 1 pint of brandy for every 8 gallons.

  3. Lightly stop the cask until fermentation is complete.

  4. Seal it tightly.

  5. If using a large cask, allow it to age for one year.

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

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Brandy + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  2. Honey + brandytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together169 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (sweet).

  3. Honey + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,707 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Brandy + lemontop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Hops + brandytop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-hex-3-en-1-ol (freshly cut grass green and herbaceous notes).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Honey
Provides the sugar that yeast ferments into alcohol, and the main sweetness of the mead.
Hops
Adds bitterness and aroma that balance the sweetness of the honey.
Brandy
Raises the alcohol content, which helps preserve the mead and stop further fermentation.
Lemons
Adds acidity and brightness that lift the flavor of the honey.

The step that matters

Lightly stop the cask until fermentation is complete. Fermentation releases carbon dioxide, which builds pressure inside the cask. A loose stopper lets the gas escape while keeping air out, so the cask does not burst or sour. Sealing tightly only after fermentation prevents the mead from being damaged while it is still active.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (honey, hops, brandy, cream):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Grapefits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against honey, hops, brandy, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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