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Drink

Mead

A fermented beverage made from honey, water, hops, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Honey and brandy work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 169 recipes. Both carry ethyl benzoate, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Mead

Ingredients

Directions

Make the must

  1. Boil the honey and water together for one hour.

  2. Skim the mixture well.

  3. Add 1 ounce of hops for every gallon.

  4. Boil for an additional 30 minutes.

  5. Let the mixture stand until the next day.

Ferment and age

  1. Transfer the mixture into a cask.

  2. Add 1 quart of brandy for every 12 gallons.

  3. Stop the cask lightly until fermentation is complete.

  4. Seal it tightly.

  5. Let it age for one year before tapping.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (sweet).

  2. 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).

  3. Honey + hopstop 41% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1 recipe

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Honey
Provides the fermentable sugar that becomes alcohol, and most of the body and sweetness of the mead.
Hops
Adds bitterness and aroma that balance the sweetness of the honey.
Brandy
Raises the alcohol content, helping preserve the mead and stabilise it during ageing.

The step that matters

Stop the cask lightly until fermentation is complete. Fermentation releases carbon dioxide, and a tightly sealed cask can build pressure or burst. A loose stopper lets gas escape while keeping air out, and the cask must be sealed only after fermentation has finished.

“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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