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Mead. No. 2

A fermented honey beverage flavored with cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mead. No. 2

Ingredients

Directions

Boil and cool

  1. Boil honey and water together for one hour.

  2. Let the mixture cool, then pour it into a cask.

Spice and strain

  1. Add the spices, which should be pounded and placed in a linen bag suspended from the bung-hole.

  2. Filter the scum through a flannel bag.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Honey
Supplies the sugars that give the drink its body and sweetness.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, aromatic flavour to the drink.
Cloves
Adds strong, pungent aroma and spice flavour.
Ginger
Adds sharp, warming aroma and a peppery bite.
Nutmeg
Adds a sweet, woody aroma that rounds out the spices.

The step that matters

Filter the scum. Boiling honey and water brings impurities to the surface as scum. Removing it before the liquor settles keeps the finished mead clearer and less likely to taste off.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (honey, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Fennelfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against honey, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg. 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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