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Drink

Mead

A fermented honey and water beverage made by boiling, cooling, and fermenting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Mead

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the honey mixture

  1. Boil the water until it is reduced by a fourth.

  2. Draw off the liquid.

  3. Boil the remainder in the same manner.

  4. Fill the copper with the first boiled liquid.

  5. Continue boiling until half is evaporated.

  6. Do not remove the scum.

  7. Mix it well with the liquor while boiling.

  8. Draw off into a vessel.

Ferment

  1. Let it cool to the temperature of new milk.

  2. Allow it to ferment in a cool, dark place until it forms a thick head.

  3. Once fermentation is complete, seal it tightly to keep out air.

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

Purified honey
Supplies the sugars that yeast ferments into alcohol, and gives the mead its sweetness and body.

The step that matters

Seal the vessel once fermentation is complete. Keeping air out stops oxidation and spoilage bacteria from turning the alcohol sour, so the finished mead stays stable.

“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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