SC - typo?

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Woeller D wrote:

> I'm hoping this isn't too dumb of a suggestion, but, could the reference
> be to FERMENTED honey? I've made Great/Long Mead which has a very
> vinegar taste for the first 2-4 years (while it mellows- it's not really
> good until it's 5-10 years old), that seems to me like it would work in
> that recipe...
> Angelique

I suppose it could be, but the problem with the idea is that a cook or
scribe writing in Middle English would have no reason to call that
anything but mead, as far as I can tell.

By Great/Long Mead I assume you mean mead which has to be aged a long
time, which would suggest to me a rather high-gravity, strong mead, made
with a yeast that can tolerate high-alcohol conditions, such as
champagne yeast. The period mead recipes I have seen seem to call for
either ale yeast, or some kind of wild airborne yeast. In the case of
ale yeasts, I find that meads made with them lose that sharpness after
from 6 months to two years. Conditions would of course vary for wild
yeasts.

Personally, I love a strong but dry mead with carbonation: the sort of
mead Dom Perignon might have made, but I haven't seen any indication
that such meads were made in the period the sturgyn recipe comes from
(15th century).

I'm still inclined to think this a simple scribal error or a
mistranslation.

Adamantius 
______________________________________
Phil & Susan Troy
troy at asan.com
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