Mystery of Mead

The last post was a plain mead or hydromel (honey and water only). Roughly 20% of the recipes I have cataloged to date are for plain mead. That does not mean they are devoid of interest, the proportions of honey, fermentation containers (such as wood casks used for wine), sources of honey (honet, combs, a combination), and different yeast still mean that plain meads are a complex topic.

The source for the hydromel recipe also contains a second mead recipe, this one more complex.

The recipe uses, among other things, licorice and coriander. Licorice, shown attached in an illustration from Gerard’s 1633 herbal (courtesy of the Wellcome Collection) was used, among other things, to clear the chest and lungs. Coriander, was used, among other things, to bring on childbirth, as shown in this 13^th century manuscript Apollodorus de Herbis (also courtesy of the Wellcome Collection).

Occo, 1575 provides a recipe for Hydromel Compositum:

R. Aquae fontis lib. viginti.
Mellis despumati lib. unam.
Salviae,
Origani ana pugillum semis.
Anisi,
Coriandri ana drach. unam.
Glycyrrhizae drach. duas.
Cinamomi drach. unam semis.
Bulliant ad consumptionem quartae partis, & colentur.

This is relatively easy to translate. My translation is:

Recipe: Spring water 20 libra.
Scummed honey 1 libra.
Sage,
oregano of each half a handful.
Anise,
coriander, of each one dram.
Licorice 2 dram.
Cinnamon, 1 ½ dram.
Boil to the consumption of a quarter part and strain.

Using a libra of 330 grams, the total volume here is about 1 ¾ gallon to start, a bit under 1 ½ gallon after boiling. The drink will not be very strong, asthere is less than a pound of honey in that 1 ½ gallons of liquid. While I have not done a solid analysis, I think this lesser sugar concentration may be reasonably typical for recipes that are medicinal in nature, and a plausible argument could be made that these are potentially made and dispensed by the pharmacist fairly immediately after concocting and without much fermentation.

A dram is close to 4 grams, we have ¾ of an ounce of the spices (anise, coriander, licorice and cinnamon), which boiled for the approximately hour and a half to two hours required to reduce the volume by 25% would probably impart a lot of flavor.

That said, the recipe is an interesting one. The anise and licorice seem like an interesting combination.

Our recipe this week goes back to basic hydromel. The recipe comes from this text. Occo, Adolf. (1575). Pharmacopoeia seu Medicamentarium pro Republica Augustana. Willerus: Johann Georg Werdenstein. Retrieved from Google Books https://books.google.com/books?id=YEA6AAAAcAAJ .See p.282 of the book for our recipe.

Adolf (Adolph, Adolphus) Occo (Occone, Occonius, Occonus) (1524-1606) was a physician and numismatist (coin collector). The portrait attached to this post was made some time after his death, and is from the collection of the Wellcome Library. He wrote both on coins and medicine. (see http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n88132177/ for some bibliographic information)

Adolf Occo

His Pharmacopia was typical of the times, a list of medical recipes. Often these medicines would be in a fermented base. This text contains a recipe for plain hydromel and one for hydromel compositum containing spices and herbs (next time).

The recipe for hydromel is fairly standard. This 1:8 ratio of honey to water is seen in a great many recipes, and may originate with the Greek writer Oribasius (4^th century). In later texts, the 1:8 ratio is strongly associated with the physician known as Mesue. He is more properly Yuhanna ibn-Masawayah, a 7^th-8^th century Persian Christian Physician, who was parts of the flourishing medical establishment in that part of the world. He wrote several texts that were widely published, translated, and incorporated into other texts in the 15^th and 16^th century in western Europe. While this recipe is not attributed to him by Occo, it seems likely to be derived from Mesue’s writings.

1575 Occo Pharmacopoeia p.281 recipe for hydromel under section for decoctions.

HYDROMEL Simplex.

Mellis libram unam.
Aquae pluviae vel fontis lib. octo.
Decoquantur donec Mel non amplius spumet.

TRANSLATION (Laura Angotti): Simple Hydromel

Recipe One libra honey, Rain water or spring 8 libra. Cook until the honey does not scum anymore.

Charles Estienne, also known as Carolus Stephanus was born in 1504 and died in 1564. As a physician, he is credited with discovering the spinal canal and wrote about human anatomy. He was involved in printing in Paris. Relative to mead he wrote a number of works on agriculture, most notably ‘L’agriculture, et maison rustique’, first published in 1564 edited and rewritten by son-in-law Jean Liebault from Estienne’s previous works. The book was re-worked and expanded several times, with mead recipes first appearing in the 1576 edition. The book was translated to multiple languages and went through many editions.

The cover page pictured is from the third printing and second edition of the English translation, in 1616.

One of the mead recipes in the 1576 edition reads:

“Les Polonnois, Moscovites, & Anglois, sont un brevuage ayant forme d’hydromel, lequel est beaucoup plus plaisant & plus sain, que plusieurs vins genereux qu’ils appellent Mede: Ils prennent une partie de miel, & six parties d’eau de pluye, ou de riviere, ou de fontaine, font le tout bouillir ensemble, & en bouillant l’escument, soigneusement quasi a la consumption de la moitie du tout: estant refroid y le mettent dedans un vaisseau a vin, puis adioustent six onces de levain, ou de biere, ou d’ale, pour le faire ebouillir & depurer, & pendent dans le vaisseau un nouet plein de canelle, poivre, zingembre, graine de paradis, & cloux de girofle, mesmement jettent dedans le vaisseau une poignee de fleurs de suceau: exposent le vaisseau au Soleil d’Este l’espace de quarante jours, ou en Hyver le mettent dans la cave. Ceste facon d’hydromel est forte souveraine pour les fiebures quartes, mauvaises habitudes du corps, maladies du cerveau, comme epilepsie, apoplexie, paralysie esquelles le vin est defendu.”

Translation by Laura Angotti: “The Polish, Moscovites and English, have a beverage having the form of hydromel which they call Mede; this is much more pleasant and healthier than many good wines. They take one part of honey and six parts of rainwater, river water, or fountain water. They let it all boil together, and while it boils they scum it carefully, almost to the consumption of half of it. They let it stand to cool and then place it in a wine vessel, then adding six ounces of yeast, or beer, or ale, to make it boil and purify. And they hang in the vessel a little linen bag full of cinnamon, pepper, ginger, grains of paradise, and cloves. The same they throw into the vessel a handful of elder flowers. Expose the vessel to the summer sun for forty days, or in winter put it in the cellar. This type of hydromel is very good medicine against quartain fevers, bad habits of the body, brain diseases such as epilepsy, stroke, paralysis and those illnesses where wine is forbidden.”

This recipe is notable for a number of reasons. The proportions of spices is open to interpretation, the use of elderflowers new. The 40 days fermentation period harkens back to the earliest recipes in Classical writings. The use of a wine vessel for fermentation has important implications for flavor. Finally, the note of medicinal benefits of the brew highlights the deep and enduring connections between mead and medicine.

The fifth and final recipe from UPenn Ms. Codex 252, known as the Maddison Family Receipt Book, is for something I do not consider mead, but which is called mead in the text, and which serves as a good mechanism for a final conversation about this manuscript cookbook; like the other conversations, it has an undercurrent of change.

Hill (17^th c.) on p.214[=208] gives the following recipe for mead:

Mrs E Hescot ressett for mead

To a pound of hony, take two pound of sugar, 2 gallons of watter well boyled mix them boyle and scum it very well. And clean then pour it into ye vessill you will worke it in. Put a good hand full of baum when it is cold enough put in littill spoonful of east let it work a littill stope it close in 10 dayes you may draw it into bottles.

Here we see sugar being used to bolster the fermentable sugars in the drink. Over 2/3 of the fermentable sugars are from sugar rather than honey. This practice of replacing some of the honey in mead with sugar appears to have started in the latter half of the 17^th century, and is reflected in multiple recipes from manuscript cookbooks. Typically a smaller portion of the honey is replaced by sugar than in this recipe. A few manuscripts go so far as to provide recipes for ‘mead’ or ‘braggot’ where sugar has entirely replaced the traditional honey.

The 17^th century was a time of great change. Significant changes in the religious, military, economic, and scientific worlds brought about changes in all aspects of life. All of these are relevant to fermented drinks in general and mead in specific.

The core question is what has driven the replacement of some (but not all) of the honey with sugar. While we cannot presume that our palates are the same as someone form the 17^th century, we can state with certainty that sugar instead of honey will not lead to a more full-flavored drink. In my opinion the most likely reason for the use of sugar is economic, with a potential secondary factor being the novelty and residual perceived status of using a former luxury item (sugar) in your drink.

Sugar Cane

The third quarter of the 17^th century saw a 70% drop in the price of sugar. Added to this, the sugar refining center of Europe was in London, and contemporary commentaries note the ‘sweet tooth’ of the English. (see http://www.reed.edu/anthro/570/Chronologies/Week%205%20Mintz%20Chron.html ).

In addition to aspects of cultural and socio-economic preference, alcohol production and consumption has always had a primary driving force of availability and economics. Where grapes grow well, wine is preferred, where apples grow well, cider, and so on. Where economically advantageous, wine producers drink beer/ale in their own homes to reap the greater economic benefit of selling their wine rather than consuming it. The status conferred by drinking rare and expensive drinks perhaps from distant lands is higher than that from drinking the local brew. These factors have always played a significant factor in brewing and drinking.

Placed in that cultural and economic frame, the newly cheap sugar becomes an obvious replacement for honey.

This recipe is one I’m unlikely to make. I suspect most mead makers would agree with me. But as a piece of history it is quite interesting.

Photo of Sugar cane courtesy of Wellcome Collection.

The fourth recipe from UPenn Ms. Codex 252, known as the Maddison Family Receipt Book, is for ‘meade’.

Transcription of manuscripts requires some practice. While printing typefaces for English language books of the 17^th century are relatively easy for the modern eye to read, the main tripping points being the long s, and variable spelling (try reading aloud), manuscripts present a more significant challenge.

When reading manuscripts, just like the modern day, some hands are much easier to read than others. Multiple forms could be used for each letter, and spelling was more variable in manuscript than in print.

Even with significant experience, some words remain guesswork. I am still struggling with a detailed mead recipe from a 1620’s manuscript with a very cramped hand and significant fading of the ink. I also just finished transcribing three early recipes from another manuscript, with a hand that is quite consistent but uses a number of letter forms that are very different from the modern day – see the scans (courtesy of the Wellcome Library).

Paleography is the study of historical handwriting. There are a number of online resources that can help to learn the letter forms and practice transcription. These sites also introduce difference approaches to transcription, from a technical one that tries to preserve every stroke and abbreviation of the original, to a content-focused approach that is more a modern ’translation’ of the original. The person looking to transcribe manuscripts would be well advised to look up examples of handwriting from the period and geography of interest.

Hill (17^th c.) on p.143[=136] gives a simple recipe for mead from honeycombs.

to make meade

Take ye hony Combs & all the next day after thay are taken & put ym into spring watter & make it strong a noufe to beare an Egg 6 penny broad, ye let it stand all night, ym straine it through a sive & washe ye Combs a gaine ye trye ye Egg if it be strong a noufe, after ye straine it let it stand a while to settell, leve the settlins behind, boyle it too howers ym take it of & let it stand till it be Could ye put it in a vessel it will be a yeare before it be fit to drink, stope it Close as soune as it is put up.

The deceptively simple recipe could imply a significant variety of outcomes. The general cleanliness of the combs, how much water is used relative to the combs (which appear to be used with all the honey left in), and how much water is wasted in the boil all will affect the outcome. Not to mention the variability of the honey itself.

Making mead from the entire comb will invariable lead to a lot more ‘stuff’ being included in the wort. A very clean comb could be similar to mead made with pure honey, but starting with more marginal combs will affect the character of the resulting drink.

The third recipe from UPenn Ms. Codex 252, known as the Maddison Family Receipt Book, is for ‘white metheglin’. Among its 17 named flavor additions is musk, which is derived from a gland of the male musk deer (by killing the deer, which is now endangered).

Musk Deer

This recipe can be used to demonstrate some of the many difficulties with dating manuscripts. Even if dates are given within the text, they may be contemporary, refer to an event in the past for the writer, or be added later with notes.

As mentioned last week, dates in the manuscript include 1663, 1668, and 1673; ownership inscriptions inside the front cover are dated 1675 and 1710.

C.M. appears throughout text as a notation. If a Maddison family member with initial C. could be identified within the time frame known for the creation of this manuscript, it could help solidify the dating.

This recipe in particular references Sir Kenelm Digby, and indeed this recipe can be found on page 104 of Digby’s 1669 book. The version in Digby’s book, is longer than the one in the manuscript, and includes the two phrases marked with <<   >> in the transcription below; these greatly enhance the recipe’s clarity. The latter part of the recipe is also more detailed in Digby. The two sections omitted are each an appropriate length to mark a line accidentally skipped during transcription (particularly considering the partial word), but do not match the line breaks in Digby, suggesting there may be an intermediary version that itself was copied from Digby (changing the line breaks in the process).

Another approach to dating is in the name of the recipe. I found a Sir Edward Bainton who appears in court documents in 1643, when he appears to have been challenged by a Colonel Fettiplace, regarding which Sir Bainton was instructed by a committee on disputes not to fight and Fettiplace was taken into custody. (House of Commons, 1803, p.808)

Finally, for those with significant expertise, the handwriting itself, particularly the form of the letters, can be used to help date manuscripts.

Again, a partial story for the time being, but the data taken in aggregate would suggest a date between the 1640’s and 1660’s for the original recipe. And the connection to Digby’s text implies the manuscript version was written after 1669 and perhaps 1710 (the later dates in the manuscript).

Hill (17^th c.) recipe book on p.131[=124] tells us:

Sir Edward Bainton’s Receipt to make white Metheglin, which my Lord of Portland (who gave it to Sr Kenelm Digby) said was ye best he ever drank.

Take sweet marjoram, sweet bryar buds, Violet leaves, Strawberry leaves, of each one handful, and a good handfull of Violet flowers (ye double ones are ye best) broad Time, Borage Agrimony, of each half a hand full, & two or three branches of Rosemary, ye seeds of Caroway, Coriander, and fennel, of each two spoonfuls; and three <<or four blades of large-mace. Boil all these>> in eight gallons of running water, three quarters of an hour, then strain it, & and when it is but bloud-warm, put in <<as much of the best honey, as will make the Li>>quor bear an Egg ye breath of six pence above scum will rise Then boyle it again as long as any & when it is almost cold, put in half a pint of good Ale-barm; and when it hath wrought, til you perceive ye barm to fall, then Tun it and let it work in ye Barrel till ye barm leaveth rising, filling it up every day with some of ye same liquor. when you stop it up, put in a bag with one Nutmeg sliced, a little whole Cloves and Mace, a stick of Cinnamon broken in pieces, and a grain of Good Musk.

You may make this a little before Michaelmas, and it will be fit to drink at Lent.

C.M.

This recipe is very typical of 17^th century metheglin recipes. It contains 12 flavors added to the boil, and another 5 added later into the secondary fermentation. Balancing the flavors to produce a tasty result could be a challenge.

Musk Deer Credit Wellcome Collection https://wellcomecollection.org/works/xj76a3z7

Digby, K. (1669/1967). The closet of the eminently learned Sir Kenelme Digbie Kt. opened. St. Louis: Mallinckrodt Chemical Works. Retrieved from http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16441. Scan of 1669 edition https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100618178.

Great Britain House of Commons. 1803. Journals of the House of Commons. HMSO. Retrieved from Google Books https://books.google.com/books?id=RBRDAAAAcAAJ

Hill, Martyn. 17^th c. Recipe Book. MS Codex 252. Retrieved from University of Pennsylvania http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017/d/medren/9915808403503681

The second recipe from UPenn Ms. Codex 252, known as the Maddison Family Receipt Book, is for lemon rosemary mead.

This manuscript is typical in containing both medical and culinary recipes. While some manuscripts are almost completely medical, or almost completely culinary, it is much more typical for them to contain both types of recipes, and sometimes also household instructions (making ink, cleaning clothes) or veterinary prescriptions (most often for horses, but not other farm animals, implying an interesting break in scope for such manuscripts). Also relatively common is for culinary recipes to be written from one side of the manuscript, and medical from the other end, with the book reversed.

Recipes for mead are often found in English language manuscripts near those for wines. Wines made from fruits (raspberries, gooseberries, currants, raisins, cherries, elderberries, mulberries, etc.) or flowers (cowslip, elder, clove gilliflowers, etc.) with sugar added to provide additional fermentables, become commonplace in the 17^th century. Recipes for fruit wines or with sugar added for additional fermentables are not generally seen prior to the 17^th century.

Lemon Rosemary Mead in the Fermenter

While rosemary is a common mead addition from the earliest flavored meads, I have not seen citrus (lemon and orange) in recipes dated prior to 1600, but they become relatively common in the 17^th century. This recipe contains an uncommon method to extract flavor from the additions of pouring the boiling wort over the lemons and rosemary.

Hill (17^th c.) (1660) on page 115[=108] instructs:

To make mead

Tak such a quantity of water as you intend to make and boyle it over night for an houer next morning put in so much honey as will bear an egge then boyle it till the scum rises very well then take it of the fire and take six lemons Cutt them round Rhines an all an tak it of the fire and halfe a handfull of Rosmary an put the Lemons an Rosemary into the vessell when you work the drincke then put some yest the hot Liquer upon them and let it stand while its cold then put some yest to it and work it upp then putt it into a burill and let it stand in it for a fortnight and then bottell it and will be fit to drinck in a month or lesse.

This recipe is similar to last week’s, when I made it it had an OG of 1.11. The flavor is very refreshing with lemon, rosemary, and honey all present. The drink was indeed ready to drink quite quickly (I first drank it at about two months). It also appears to have some legs, I had some a few weeks ago after it had been in the bottle for about a year, and it remained bright and fresh, and nicely carbonated. I think of this as a summer drink. This is definitely on my list of recipes I want to make again.

Photo credit Laura Angotti

Hill, Martyn. 17^th c. Recipe Book. MS Codex 252. Retrieved from University of Pennsylvania http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017/d/medren/9915808403503681