SC - period mead recipes--Le Menagier's Bouchet

[Philip & Susan Troy]

david friedman wrote:
> 
> I don't think it corresponds very closely to Digby's weak honey
> drink, although since I don't know what a "sixth" is (sixth of a
> gallon?) I can't figure out the proportions. 

I don't have the details at my fingertips, but I vaguely recall that the
original French term was "setier", which we would translate as a
"sester". Presumably either it is derived from originally being a sixth
of something, or from being a unit of X that could be purchased with a
Roman sesterce. This seems to me to be supported by the translated text
reading "to make six sixths of"...well, duh, why not simply say, "to
make one", if a sixth is what you're making six of, um, uh, well, you
know what I mean.

Anyway, I've seen "sester" defined as being either roughly one modern
American gallon or two, depending on where and when in medieval Europe
you are. (I recall reading this off some university's medieval online
glossary and encyclopedia, but have since confirmed this elsewhere in
other sources.) A friend and I worked out the math for bouchet, and as I
recall it was either slightly stronger or slightly weaker than the Digby
small mead, but either way eminently drinkable.

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com