Walnut Mead

To every gallon of water put three pounds and a half of honey, and boil them together three quarters of an hour. To every gallon of liquor put about two dozen of walnut leaves, pour the liquor boiling hot upon them, and let them stand all night: take out the leaves, put in a spoonful of yeast, and let it work two or three days. Then make it up, and after it has stood three months, bottle it.

Cowslip Mead

To fifteen gallons of water put thirty pounds of honey, and boil it till one gallon is wasted. Skim it, take it off the fire, and have ready sixteen lemons cut in halves. Take a gallon of the liquor, and put it to the lemons. Put the rest of the liquor into a tub, with seven pecks of cowslips, and let them stand all night. Put in the liquor with the lemons, eight spoonsful of new yeast, and a handful of sweetbriar; stir them all well together, and let it work three or four days. Then strain it, put it into a cask, and after it has stood six months, bottle it.

Mead Wine

To one hundred and twenty gallons of pure water, the softer the better, put fifteen gallons of clarified honey. When the honey is well mixed with the water, fill a copper, which holds only sixty gallons, and boil it till it is reduced about a fourth part. Draw it off, and boil the remainder of the liquor in the same manner. When this last is about a fourth part wasted, fill up the copper with some of that which was first boiled, and continue boiling it and filling it up, till the copper contains the whole of the liquor, by which time it will of course be half evaporated. In boiling, never take off the scum, but, on the contrary, have it well mixed with the liquor whilst boiling, by means of a jet. When this is done, draw it off into under backs, by a cock at the bottom of the copper, in which let it remain till only as warm as new milk. At this time tun it up, and suffer it to ferment in the vessel, where it will form a thick head. As soon as it is done working, stop it down very close, in order to keep the air from it as much as possible. Keep this in a cool cellar, so as not to be at all affected by the change of weather.

Or, take eighty pounds of purified honey to one hundred and twenty gallons of soft water, and manage in the making, in all respects, like the first above mentioned, it proves very pleasant, good, light drinking, and is by many preferred to the other, which is much richer, and has a fuller flavour, but at the same time it is more inebriating. Many like mead when it has an aromatic flavour, and for this purpose they mix elder, rosemary, and marjoram flowers with it; and also use cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and cardamums, in various proportions, according to their taste. Others put in a mixture of thyme, eglantine, marjoram, and rosemary, with various spices ; but green herbs are apt to make mead drink flat; and too many cloves, besides being very predominant in the taste, make it of too high a colour. Never bottle mead before it is half a year old; and take care to have it well corked, and keep it in the same vault wherein it stood whilst in the cask.