posted on July 30, 2000 06:48:45 PMGreetings! Welcome to Valhalla!
Mead For One Hundred
Beat to a strong froth the whites of three eggs. Add them to sixteen quarts of strained honey diluted with six gallons of water. Flavor with the thin or yellow part of the rind of two dozen lemons. Boil and skim for three-quarters of an hour. Pour into a clean tub of oak or hemlock (as pine imparts a disagreeable flavor), and when cool, add a gill of good, fresh yeast. Cover and leave to ferment. When it has done working, transfer to a clean barrel. In six months it may be bottled.
From The Philosophy of Housekeeping by Joseph and Laura Lyman 1867
posted on July 30, 2000 06:54:47 PM
In Boston I used to live right around the corner from an Ethopian restaurant. Mead ("tej" was the drink de rigueur, and served just warm. Yum.
posted on July 30, 2000 07:04:43 PMjeanyu: About one quarter pint. At least it is today. Who knows if it was the same in 1867. Might have meant scoop it with the actual gill of some large fish? You wouldn't believe some of the weird stuff in this book. A great read!
posted on July 30, 2000 07:28:47 PM
Thanks for the info yorequest.
Honest--wanna try it. Soooo-in about six months or so--the party, all invited, is at my house!!
Old Cookbooks have always been a fascination for me. My oldest cookbook is just from the teen's. You are very fortunate to have such a wonderful old book. But even my 1913 cookbook, will say--bake until done in a hot oven. Well---how hot and how long!! Then I realize, these people were cooking or baking on a coal or wood fired stove. There was no such thing as temperature gauges then.
posted on July 30, 2000 07:35:40 PMPastorleon: I knew we had something in common! A love of ancient and venerable spirits!
I haven't actually tried this recipe myself, as yet. Guess I should have stated that up front. I'm a bit tardy because the book also has instructions such as this:
To prevent dogs from going mad- (European recipe): Mix a small portion of flour of sulphur in their food or drink.
jeanyu: Yeah, I think it's pretty neat. Lots of puddings and pastries, too! Some of the recipe's requiring baking will say a 'quick' or 'brisk' oven. Huh? Here's their idea of a menu for breakfast:
Fried Sausages with potatoes
Cold boiled tongue
Indian mush, fried
Buckwheat batter cakes
Pickled cucmbers
Didn't see 'Tums' mentioned anywhere.
[ edited by yorequest on Jul 30, 2000 07:42 PM ]
posted on July 30, 2000 07:46:51 PMtwelvepole: At best, ambrosia. At worst, the north end of a southbound polecat. Like anything else, I would guess, it depends on the chef!
posted on July 30, 2000 07:56:45 PM
You can pick up a bottle of mead at most larger liquor stores.
There's also a lovely liqueur called Bahrenjaeger (sorry - forgot how to umlaut) that is honey-flavored. Excellent on vanilla ice cream.
This week I'm listing a collection of 1935-1950 cookbooks, one of which has a delightful recipe for Sweet and Sour Heart (with accompanying picture in all its throbbing glory), as well as Roast Opossum, which wouldn't be too bad except that "removing the head and tail is optional" (?!?). This is a little city cookbook, not some weird snake-handler- church fundraiser publication or a 1st ed of The Joy of Cooking. All the other recipes are pretty benign.
Fried mush is actually pretty good. You just cook up a batch of mush (for you city folks, think "polenta", pour into a greased loaf pan, refrigerate overnight, then brown in butter or bacon grease; it looks a lot like slices of french toast. Tasty with sorghum or cane syrup. You can also mix in crumbled bacon if you like.
Does anybody out there have a recipe for raisin spice cake, no butter, maybe 1 egg, in which the shortening, sugar and spices are boiled before baking? We knew this as "War Cake", and it was traditionally our birthday cake. Ships beautifully and stays moist nearly forever. The recipe'd been in the family since the Civil War (and is reputedly the reason poor Jake deserted for home - end of Jake.) When Grandma went into a Facility, Dad threw out tons of stuff, one of which was The Recipe. I'd love to be able to make it for my boy.
I hope this is the recipe you're looking for. It came from my grandmother's recipe box.
Lin
Boiled Cake
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 cups white sugar
1 cup shortening
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder (optional)
2 cups water
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
2 cups raisins
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups chopped walnuts
Directions
1 Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Lightly grease and flour one 9 x 13 inch baking pan.
2 Combine water, sugar, shortening, salt, cocoa, raisins, and spices in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, and continue to boil for 3 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla and nuts.
3 Combine flour and baking soda. Stir into boiled mixture, and thoroughly mix. Pour into prepared pan, and spread evenly.
4 Bake for 50 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool.
posted on July 31, 2000 12:55:49 PM
My bestest friend brews the best smoothest honey mead in the world. I'm not a drinker but I love that stuff. she also does a lemon honey mead that is very smooth.
On cookbooks I have this book called "It takes a thousand eggs" that translates recipes that are hundreds of years old. It is great because it gives you the original in old english first and then the translation.
I have done a lot of cooking from that book or "hacked many a gobbet" as it says.
This recipe was handwritten on what I assume to be butcher paper. I recopied many of the ones I use, in order to preserve the old ones. I cleaned it up a bit to post it here, as hers stated "throw in a handful of chopped nuts and some cocoa if you want."
My Gram was French, born in New Orleans in 1898, and moved to Michigan when she was a small child.
She exchanged recipes with penpals from all over the country, so the recipe could have come from most anywhere.
was the drink de rigueur, and served just warm. Yum.
) but what the heck is a gill?
if needed.