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Made Wines

A honey wine made by boiling honey and water, fermenting the mixture, and storing it in a cool cellar.

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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the must

  1. Combine honey and water in a large vessel.

  2. Boil the mixture, allowing it to evaporate by about a fourth.

  3. Mix the scum back into the liquor while boiling.

  4. Once boiled, draw off the liquid into a fermentation vessel.

Ferment

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

  2. Allow it to ferment until a thick head forms.

  3. Seal the vessel tightly to keep out air.

Store

  1. Store in a cool, dark cellar.

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

Honey
Supplies the sugars that yeast ferments into alcohol and gives the mead its sweetness.

The step that matters

Cool the liquid before fermenting. High heat can kill or weaken yeast and other fermenting microbes. Cooling the liquid to a mild warmth before fermentation lets them work steadily and produce alcohol instead of stalling or producing off-flavors.

“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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