"if your vessell houlde Ten Gallons put in a Bout 5 Races of Ginger the out sides Paired a Way 2 Nuttmege and a Grote worth of Cinnamon A little mace a few Cloves ... and you must make it at Miclemas And not to be Drunk Tell Lent"
Wellcome Mead presents 105 historical mead recipes and their variants (29 additional recipes). Each of the recipes has been drawn from 17th and early 18th century English household receipt books held by the Wellcome Library in London. Although the recipes are drawn from a focused time and geography, they showcase the breadth and complexity of historical mead recipes.
After a brief discussion of the source documents, Wellcome Mead focuses on understanding the original recipes within the context of their historical world and developing useable modern interpretations for them. Equipment, and methods used to produce the original recipes are detailed and discussed as well as each of the over 100 different ingredients. Changes in mead recipes over time are addressed with reference to historical factors driving that change.
Mead styles represented include plain mead, metheglins (spices herbs, and flowers), fruited meads (melomels), citrus meads, and braggots. Multiple options are presented to bring recipes forward for modern use, and specific recipe interpretations are given for each of the historical recipes. Recipe interpretations are suitable for both those interested in using history as inspiration for more modern efforts and those focused on historical re-creation. The book is intended for mazers familiar with basic mead making.
PART I: Historical Mead Making
Introduction
Recipes in Context
Old Recipes into Modern Mead Making
Ingredients
Selected Recipes
PART II: The Recipes
Plain Meads
Meads with Added Sugars
Cirtus Meads
Flower Forward Meads
Spice Focused Meads
Non-Spice (Herb) Focused Meads
Multiple Flavors
Complex Meads
Braggots
Miscellaneous Meads