[Sca-cooks] Tenth Century Mead Recipes

Stefan li Rous StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
Wed Aug 29 19:18:00 PDT 2012


Cariadoc said:
<<< There are a lot of recipes, but here's one: >>>

Thank you. I'd love to see more.

<<< *A Recipe for mead without raisins:* (p 470) >>>

Interesting. *without raisins*! Does that imply that the regular version of this drink is *with* raisins?

Although the raisins don't seem to actually be mentioned in the recipe.

<<< Put 50 ratls (50 pounds) honey in a pot and add 50 ratls (100 cups) 
water. Let it boil until one third if the liquid evaporates, which 
amounts to 33 ratls.>>>

The recipe actually does the math for you and indicates this reduction amount?  A bit different from "take enough" or similar non-specific measurements in most period recipes.

<<< At this point, add to the pot 2 mithqals (9 grams) 
saffron and 2 dirhems (6 grams) mastic. Pour into the pot 5 ratls (10 
cups) cold water. >>>

Saffron? Not what I would think of to add to a sweet drink.

<<< Empty the liquid into glass jars. Set them aside in a shaded place for 
50 days after which you seal them with mud. Use the wine in winter by 
mixing one part of it with two parts of musk-flavored water. It will be 
a splendid drink. >>>

Does this imply that they considered the water safe to drink? Or is this like mixing water in with wine, where the alcohol gives some protection? But then we do have the other sekanjaban type drinks from the middle east that use water without boiling it.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
   Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/marksharris
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****









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