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Drink

Sassafras Mead

A fermented beverage made from boiling water, brown sugar, molasses, tartaric acid, sassafras essence, and soda carbonate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Sassafras Mead

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mead

  1. Mix the brown sugar, molasses, and tartaric acid with the boiling water. Stir well.

  2. Let it cool.

  3. Strain the mixture into a large jug or pan.

  4. Add the essence of sassafras and mix well.

Bottle and store

  1. Transfer to clean bottles.

  2. Cork tightly.

  3. Store in a cool place.

Serve

  1. Mix 1 tablespoon of the mead with ½ tumbler of ice water.

  2. Stir in ½ teaspoon of carbonate of soda.

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. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Brown sugar
Provides the main sweetness and body of the drink.
Molasses
Adds deep, rich flavour and sweetness along with colour.
Tartaric acid
Supplies sharp acidity that balances the sweetness.
Carbonate of soda
Reacts with the acid to release carbon dioxide, producing fizz.
Essence of sassafras
Gives the drink its characteristic aromatic, root-beer-like flavour.

The step that matters

Stir in the carbonate of soda. Carbonate of soda reacts with the tartaric acid and releases carbon dioxide quickly. The reaction produces the fizz, so the soda should be stirred in only when the mead is served, otherwise the gas escapes before the drink is drunk.

“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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