Chapter V: Introduction (5)

Take eight Gallons of water, set it over a clear fire in a Kettle; and when it is warm, put it to sixteen pounds of very good honey, and stir it well together; take off the scum, and put two large Nutmegs cut in quarters, and so let it boil at least an hour; Then take it off the fire, and put to it two good handfulls of grinded Malt, and with a white staff keep beating it together till it be almost cold; then strain it through a hair-sieve into a Tub, and put to it a wine-pint of Ale-yest, and stir it very well together; and when it is cold, you may if you please, Tun it up presently into a vessel fit for it, or else let it stand, and work a day, and when it hath done working in your vessel, stop it up very close. It will be three weeks or a month before it be ready to drink.

TO MAKE HONEY DRINK

To two quarts of water take one pound of Honey. When it boileth, skim it clean as long as any scum ariseth; boil it a pretty while; then take it off the fire, and put it in an earthen pot, and let it stand till the next day; then put it into clean bottles, that are throughly dry, rinsing first every bottle with a little of the liquor; Fill them not too full, and put into every bottle four or five Cloves, and four or five slices of Ginger: and stop it very close, and set it in Sand; and within ten or twelve days it will be ready to drink.

Some, when they take their Bees, put the honey-combs into fair-water, and make it so strong of the honey that it will bear an Egg; and then boil it with some Spice, and put it into a barrel: but I think it not so good, as that which is made of pure honey.

THE EARL OF DENBIGH'S METHEGLIN

Take twenty Gallons of Spring-water; boil it a quarter of an hour, and let it stand, until it be all most cold; then beat in so much honey, as will make it so strong as to bear an Egg, so that on the Top, you may see the breadth of a hasel-nut swimming above; The next day boil it up with six small handfuls of Rosemary; a pound and a half of Ginger, being scraped and bruised; then take the whites of twenty Eggs shells and all; beat them very well, and put them in to clarifie it; skim it very clean, then take it off the fire and strain: But put the Rosemary and Ginger in again: then let it remain till it be all most cold: then Tun it up, and take some New-ale-yest; the whites of two Eggs, a spoonful of flower, and beat them well together, and put them into the barrel; when it hath wrought very well, stop it very close for three weeks or a month: then bottle it, and a week after you may drink it.

TO MAKE MEATH

Take to every Gallon of water, a quart of honey, and set it over a clear fire, and when it is ready to boil, skim it very clear. Then take two handfulls of Sweet-marjoram, as much Rose-mary, and as much Baulm: and two handful of Fennel-roots, as much of Parsley-roots, and as many Esparages-roots: slice them in the middle, and take out the pith, wash and scrape them very clean, and put them with your herbs into your Liquor. Then take two Ounces of Ginger, one Ounce of Nutmegs, half an Ounce of Mace: bruise them and put them in: and let it boil till it be so strong that it will bear an Egg: then let it cool: and being cold, put in 3 or 4 spoon fulls of New-ale yest: and so skim it well, and put it into a Runlet, and it will work like Ale: and having done working, stop it up close, as you do New-beer: and lay salt upon it.

TO MAKE METHEGLIN

Take four Gallons of running water, and boil it a quarter of an hour, and put it in an earthen vessel, and let it stand all night. The next day take only the water, and leave the settling at the bottom: so put the honey in a thin bag, and work it in the water, till all the honey is dissolved. Take to four Gallons of water, one Gallon of Honey: Then put in an Egg, if it be strong enough of the honey, the Egg will part of it appear on the top of the liquor: if it do not, put more honey to it, till it do. Then take out the Egg, and let the Liquor stand till next morning. Then take two Ounces of Ginger, and slice it and pare it: Some Rose-mary washed and stripped from the stalk: dry it very well. The next day put the Rose-mary and Ginger into the drink, and so set it on the fire: when it is all most ready to boil, take the whites of three Eggs well beaten with the shells, and put all into the Liquor: and stir it about, and skim it well till it be clear. Be sure you skim not off the Rose-mary and Ginger: then take it off the fire, and let it run through a hair sieve: and when you have strained it, pick out the Rose-mary and Ginger out of the strainer, and put it into the drink, and throw away the Eggshells, and so let it stand all night. The next day Tun it up in a barrel: Be sure the barrel be not too big: then take a little flower and a little bran, and the white of an Egg, and beat them well together, and put them into the barrel on the top of the Metheglin, after it is tunned up, and so let it stand till it hath done working; then stop it up as close as is possible: and so let it stand six or seven weeks: then draw it out and bottle it. You must tye down the Corks, and set the bottles in sand five or six weeks, and then drink it.

ANOTHER MEATH

Take twenty Gallons of fair Spring-water. Boil it a quarter of an hour, then let it stand till the next day. Then beat into it so much honey, as will make it so strong as to bear an Egg the breadth of a two pence above the water. The next day boil it up with six small handfulls of Rosemary, a pound and a half of Ginger, (being scraped and bruised) and the whites of twenty Eggs together with their shells beaten together, and well mingled with the Liquor. Clarifie it and skim it very clean, still as the scum riseth, leaving the Ginger and Rosemary in it. Let it stand till the next day, then Tun it up, and take some New-ale-yest, the whites of two Eggs, a spoonful of flower, beat all these together, and put it on the top of the barrel, when the barrel is full. Let it work, and when it hath done working, stop it up close for three weeks, or a month. Then you may bottle it, and a few days after, you may drink it.

ANOTHER

Take three Gallons of water, and boil in it a handful of Rose-mary (or rather the flowers) Cowslips, Sage-flowers, Agrimony, Betony, and Thyme, _ana_, one handful. When it hath taken the strength of the herbs, strain it through a hair-sieve, and let it cool twenty hours. Then to three Gallons of the clear part of this decoction, put one Gallon of honey, and mingle it very well with your hand, till it bear an Egg the breadth of a groat. Then boil it and skim it as long as any scum will rise. Afterwards let it cool twenty four hours. Then put to it a small quantity of Ale-barm, and skim the thin-barm that doth rise on it, morning and evening, with a feather, during four days. And so put it up into your vessel, and hang in it a thin linnen bag with two Ounces of good White-ginger bruised therein: And stop it up close for a quarter of a year. Then you may drink it.

ANOTHER

Take a quart of honey to a Gallon of water; set the Kettle over the fire, and stir it now and then, that the honey may melt; let it boil an hour; you must boil in it, a Sprig or two of Winter-savory, as much of Sweet-marjoram; put it into tubs ready scalded, till the next day towards evening. Then tun it up into your vessel, let it work for three days; after which hang a bag in the barrel with what quantity of Mace and sliced Nutmeg you please. To make it stronger then this, 'tis but adding more hony, to make it bear an Egg the breadth of a six pence, or something more. You may bottle it out after a month, when you please. This is the way, which is used in Sussex by those who are accounted to make it best.

ANOTHER RECEIPT

Take to every Gallon of Fountain-water a good quart of honey. Set the water on the fire, till it be pretty warm; then take it off, and put it in your honey, and stir it till it be dissolved. Then put into every three Gallons, two handfuls of Thyme: two good handfuls of Strawberry-leaves, one handful of Organ; one handful of Fennel-roots, the heart being taken out, and one handful of Parsley-roots the heart taken out: But as for the herbs, it must be according to the constitution of them, for whom the Mead is intended. Then set the Herbs in it on the fire, to boil for half an hour, still skimming it, as the scum riseth; it must boil but half an hour; then take it off the fire, and presently strain it from the herbs, and let it stand till it be fully cold; then pour it softly off the bottom, and put it in a vessel fit for it, and put a small quantity of barm in it, and mingle it with it, and when it hath wrought up, which will be in three or four days, skim off that barm, and set on fresh: but the second barm must not be mingled with the Meath, but onely poured on the top of it. Take an Ounce of Nutmeg sliced: one Ounce of Ginger sliced: one Ounce of Cinnamon cut in pieces, and boil them a pretty while in a quart of White-wine or Sack: when this is very cold, strain it, and put the spices in a Canvas-bag to hang in your Meath, and pour in the Wine it was boiled in.

This Meath will be drinkable, when it is a fortnight or three weeks old.

TO MAKE METHEGLIN THAT LOOKS LIKE WHITE-WINE

Take to twelve gallons of water, a handful of each of these Herbs: Parsley, Eglantine, Rosemary, Strawberry-leaves, Wild-thyme, Baulme, Liverwort, Betony, Scabious: when the water begins to boil, cast in the herbs: let them boil a quarter of an hour: then strain out the herbs; and when it is almost cold, then put in as much of the best honey, you can get, as will bear an Egg to the breadth of two pence; that is, till you can see no more of the Egge above the water, then a two pence will cover: Lave it and stir it till you see all the honey be melted; then boil it well half an hour, at the least: skim it well, and put in the whites of six Eggs beaten, to clarifie it: Then strain it into some woodden vessels; and when it is almost cold, put some Ale-barm into it. And when it worketh well, Tun it into some well seasoned vessel, where neither Ale nor Beer hath been, for marring the colour of it. When it hath done working, if you like it, Take a quantity of Cloves, Nutmegs, Mace, Cinnamon, Ginger, or any of these that you like best, and bruise them, and put them in a boulter bag, and hang it in the vessel. Put not too much of the Spice, because many do not like the taste of much Spice. If you make it at Michaelmas, you may tap it at Christmas: but if you keep it longer, it will be the better. It will look pure, and drink with as much spirit as can be, and very pleasant.

TO MAKE WHITE METHEGLIN

Take Sweet-marjoram, Sweet-bryar-buds, Violet-leaves, Strawberry-leaves, of each one handful, and a good handful of Violet flowers (the dubble ones are the best) broad Thyme, Borrage, Agrimony, of each half a handful, and two or three branches of Rosemary, The seeds of Carvi, Coriander, and Fennel, of each two spoonfuls, and three or four blades of large-mace. Boil all these in eight Gallons of running-water, three quarters of an hour. Then strain it, and when it is but blood-warm, put in as much of the best honey, as will make the Liquor bear an Egg the breadth of six pence above the water. Then boil it again as long as any scum will rise. Then set it abroad a cooling; and when it is almost cold, put in half a pint of good Ale-barm; and when it hath wrought, till you perceive the barm to fall, then Tun it, and let it work in the barrel, till the barm leaveth rising, filling it up every day with some of the same Liquor. When you stop it up, put in a bag with one Nutmeg sliced, a little whole Cloves and Mace, a stick of Cinnamon broken in pieces, and a grain of good Musk. You may make this a little before Michaelmas, and it will be fit to drink at Lent.

This is Sir Edward Bainton's Receipt, Which my Lord of Portland (who gave it me) saith, was the best he ever drunk.

TO MAKE A SMALL METHEGLIN

Take four Gallons of water, and set it over the fire. Put into it, when it is warm, eight pounds of honey; as the scum riseth, take it clean off. When it is clear, put into it three Nutmegs quartered; three or four Races of Ginger sliced; Then let it boil a whole hour, Then take it off the fire, and put to it two handfuls of ground Malt; stir it about with a round stick, till it be as cold as wort, when you put yest to it. Then strain it out into a pot or Tub, that hath a spiggot and faucet, and put to it a pint of very good Ale-yest; so let it work for two days; Then cover it close for about four or five days, and so draw it out into bottles. It will be ready to drink within three weeks.

TO MAKE MEATH

Take to six quarts of water, a quart of the best honey, and put it on the fire, and stir it, till the honey is melted: and boil it well as long as any scum riseth: and now and then put in a little cold water, for this will make the scum rise: keep your kettle up as full as you did put it on; when it is boiled enough, about half an hour before you take it off, then take a quantity of Ginger sliced and well scraped first, and a good quantity of Rosemary, and boil both together. Of the Rosemary and Ginger you may put in more or less, for to please your taste: And when you take it off the fire, strain it into your vessel, either a well seasoned-tub, or a great cream pot, and the next morning when it is cold, pour off softly the top from the settlings into another vessel; and then put some little quantity of the best Ale-barm to it and cover it with a thin cloth over it, if it be in summer, but in the winter it will be longer a ripening, and therefore must be the warmer covered in a close place, and when you go to bottle it, take with a feather all the barm off, and put it into your bottles, and stop it up close. In ten days you may drink it.

If you think six quarts of water be too much, and would have it stronger, then put in a greater quantity of honey.

METHEGLIN OR SWEET DRINK OF MY LADY STUART

Take as much water as will fill your Firkin: of Rosemary, Bays, Sweet-bryar, Broad-thyme, Sweet-majoram, of each a handful; set it over the fire, until the herbs have a little coloured the water; then take it off, and when it is cold, put in as much honey, till it will bear an Egg; Then lave it three days morning and evening. After that boil it again, and skim it very clean, and in the boiling clarifie it with the whites of six Eggs, shells and all, well beaten together. Then take it off, and put it to cool; and when it is cold, put it into your vessel, and put to it three spoonfuls of yest; stop it close, and keep it, till it be old at least three months.

A METHEGLIN FOR THE COLICK AND STONE OF THE SAME LADY

Take one Gallon of Honey to seven Gallons of water; boil it together, and skim it well; then take Pelitory of the Wall, Saxifrage, Betony, Parsley, Groundsel, of each a handful, of the seeds of Parsley, of Nettles, Fennel and Carraway-seeds, Anisseeds and Grumelseeds, of each two Ounces. The roots of Parsley, of Alexander, of Fennel and Mallows of each two Ounces, being small cut; let all boil, till near three Gallons of the Liquor is wasted: Then take it off the fire, and let it stand till it be cold; then cleanse it from the drugs, and let it be put into a clean vessel well stopped, taking four Nutmegs, one Ounce and half of Ginger, half an Ounce of Cinnamon, twelve Cloves; cut all these small, and hang them in a bag into the vessel, when you stop it up. When it is a fortnight old, you may begin to drink of it; every morning a good draught.

A RECEIPT FOR METHEGLIN OF MY LADY WINDEBANKE

Take four Gallons of water; add to it, these Herbs and Spices following. Pellitory of the Wall, Sage, Thyme, of each a quarter of a handful, as much Clove gilly-flowers, with half as much Borage and Bugloss flowers, a little Hyssop, Five or six Eringo-roots, three or four Parsley-roots: one Fennel-root, the pith taken out, a few Red-nettle-roots, and a little Harts-tongue. Boil these Roots and Herbs half an hour; Then take out the Roots and Herbs, and put in the Spices grosly beaten in a Canvass-bag, _viz._ Cloves, Mace, of each half an Ounce, and as much Cinnamon, of Nutmeg an Ounce, with two Ounces of Ginger, and a Gallon of Honey: boil all these together half an hour longer, but do not skim it at all: let it boil in, and set it a cooling after you have taken it off the fire. When it is cold, put six spoonfuls of barm to it, and let it work twelve hours at least; then Tun it, and put a little Limon-peel into it: and then you may bottle it, if you please.

ANOTHER OF THE SAME LADY

To four Gallons of water put one Gallon of honey; warm the water Luke-warm before you put in your honey; when it is dissolved, set it over the fire, and let it boil half an hour with these Spices grosly beaten and put in a Canvass-bag: namely, half an Ounce of Ginger, two Nutmegs, a few Cloves and a little Mace; and in the boiling put in a quart of cold water to raise the scum, which you must take clean off in the boiling. If you love herbs, put in a little bundle of Rosemary, Bays, Sweet-marjoram and Eglantine. Let it stand till it is cold, then put into it half a pint of Ale-barm, and let it work twelve hours; then Tun it, but take out the bundle of herbs first.

TO MAKE METHEGLIN

Take to every Gallon of Honey, three Gallons of water, and put them together and set them over so gentle a fire, as you might endure to break it in the water with your hand. When the Honey is all melted, put in an Egg, and let it fall gently to the bottom; and if your Egg rise up again to the top of the Liquor, then it is strong enough of the Honey. But if it lie at the bottom, you must put in more honey, and stir it, till it doth rise. If your honey be very good, it will bear half a Gallon of water more to a Gallon of Honey. Then take Sweet-bryar, Bays, Rosemary, Thyme, Marjoram, Savoury, of each a good handfull, which you must tye up all together in a bundle. This Proportion of Herbs will be sufficient for twelve Gallons of Metheglin; and according to the quantity of Metheglin you make, you must add or diminish your Herbs. When you have put these things together, set it over a quick fire, and let it boil as fast as you can for half an hour or better, skiming of it very clean and clarifying it with the whites of two or three Eggs. Then take it from the fire, and put it into some clean vessel or other, and let it stand till the next morning; Then pour the Clear from the dregs, and Tun it up, putting in a little bag of such Spice as you like, whereof Ginger must be the most. After it hath stood three or four days, you may put in two or three spoon-fulls of good Ale-yest, it will make it the sooner ready to drink. It must work before you stop it up. The older your Honey is, the whiter your Metheglin will be.

MEATH WITH RAISINS

Put forty Gallons of water into your Caldron, and with a stick take the height of the water, making a notch, where the superficies of the water cometh. Then put to the water ten Gallons of Honey, which dissolve with much Laving it; then presently boil it gently, skimming it all the while, till it be free from scum. Then put into it a thin bag of boulter-cloth containing forty pound weight of the best blew Raisins of the Sun, well picked and washed and wiped dry; and let the bag be so large, that the Raisins may lie at ease and loosly in it. When you perceive that the Raisins are boiled enough to be very soft, that you may strain out all their substance, take out the bag, and strain out all the Liquor by a strong Press. Put it back to the Honey-liquor, and boil all together (having thrown away the husks of the Raisins with the bag) till your Liquor be sunk down to the notch of your stick, which is the sign of due strength. Then let it cool in a woodden vessel, and let it run through a strainer to sever it from the settlings, and put it into a strong vessel, that hath had Sack or Muscadine in it, not filling it to within three fingers breadth of the top (for otherwise it will break the vessel with working) and leave the bung open whiles it worketh, which will be six weeks very strongly, though it be put into a cold cellar. And after nine moneths, you may begin to drink it.

MORELLO WINE

To half an Aume of white wine, take twenty pounds of Morello Cherries, the stalks being first plucked off. Bruise the Cherries and break the stones. Pour into the Wine the juyce that comes out from the Cherries; but put all the solid substance of them into a long bag of boulter-cloth, and hang it in the Wine at the bung, so that it lie not in the bottom, but only reach to touch it, and therefore nail it down at the mouth of the bung. Then stop it close. For variety, you may put some clear juyce of Cherries alone (but drawn from a larger proportion of Cherries) into another parcel of Wine. To either of them, if you will Aromatise the drink, take to this quantity two Ounces of Cinnamon grosly broken and bruised, and put it in a little bag at the spiggot, that all the wine you draw may run through the Cinnamon.

You must be careful in bruising the Cherries, and breaking the stones. For if you do all at once, the Liquor will sparkle about. But you must first bruise the Cherries gently in a mortar, and rub through a sieve all that will pass, and strain the Residue hard through your hands. Then beat the remaining hard so strongly, as may break all the stones. Then put all together, and strain the clean through a subtil strainer, and put the solider substance into the bag to hang in the Wine.

CURRANTS-WINE

Take a pound of the best Currants clean picked, and pour upon them in a deep straight mouthed earthen vessel six pounds or pints of hot water, in which you have dissolved three spoonfuls of the purest and newest Ale-yest. Stop it very close till it ferment, then give such vent as is necessary, and keep it warm for about three days, it will work and ferment. Taste it after two days, to see if it be grown to your liking. As soon as you find it so, let it run through a strainer, to leave behind all the exhausted currants and the yest, and so bottle it up. It will be exceeding quick and pleasant, and is admirable good to cool the Liver, and cleanse the blood. It will be ready to drink in five or six days after it is bottled; And you may drink safely large draughts of it.

SCOTCH ALE FROM MY LADY HOLMBEY

The Excellent Scotch Ale is made thus. Heat Spring-water; it must not boil, but be ready to boil, which you will know by leaping up in bubbles. Then pour it to the Malt; but by little and little, stirring them strongly together all the while they are mingling. When all the water is in, it must be so proportioned that it be very thick. Then cover the vessel well with a thick Mat made on purpose with a hole for the stick, and that with Coverlets and Blankets to keep in all the heat. After three or four hours, let it run out by the stick (putting new heated water upon the Malt, if you please, for small Ale or Beer) into a Hogshead with the head out. There let it stand till it begin to blink, and grow long like thin Syrup. If you let it stay too long, and grow too thick, it will be sowre. Then put it again into the Caldron, and boil it an hour or an hour and a half. Then put it into a Woodden-vessel to cool, which will require near forty hours for a hogshead. Then pour it off gently from the settling. This quantity (of a hogshead) will require better then a quart of the best Ale-barm, which you must put to it thus. Put it to about three quarts of wort, and stir it, to make it work well. When the barm is risen quick scum it off to put to the rest of the wort by degrees. The remaining Liquor (that is the three quarts) will have drawn into it all the heavy dregs of the barm, and you may put it to the Ale of the second running, but not to this. Put the barm, you have scummed off (which will be at least a quart) to about two gallons of the wort, and stir it to make that rise and work. Then put two Gallons more to it. Doing thus at several times, till all be mingled, which will require a whole day to do. Cover it close, and let it work, till it be at it's height, and begin to fall, which may require ten or twelve hours, or more. Watch this well, least it sink too much, for then it will be dead. Then scum off the thickest part of the barm, and run your Ale into the hogshead, leaving all the bung open a day or two. Then lay a strong Paper upon it, to keep the clay from falling in, that you must then lay upon it, in which you must make a little hole to let it work out. You must have some of the same Liquor to fill it up, as it works over. When it hath done working, stop it up very close, and keep it in a very cold Cellar. It will be fit to broach after a year; and be very clear and sweet and pleasant, and will continue a year longer drawing; and the last glass full be as pure and as quick as the first. You begin to broach it high. Let your Cask have served for Sweet-wine.

TO MAKE ALE DRINK QUICK

When small Ale hath wrought sufficiently, draw into bottles; but first put into every bottle twelve good raisins of the Sun split and stoned; Then stop up the bottle close, and set it in sand (gravel) or a cold dry Cellar. After a while this will drink exceeding quick and pleasant. Likewise take six Wheat-corns, and bruise them, and put into a bottle of Ale; it will make it exceeding quick and stronger.

TO MAKE CIDER

Take a Peck of Apples, and slice them, and boil them in a barrel of water, till the third part be wasted; Then cool your water as you do for wort, and when it is cold, you must pour the water upon three measures of grown Apples. Then draw forth the water at a tap three or four times a day, for three days together. Then press out the Liquor, and Tun it up; when it hath done working, then stop it up close.

A VERY PLEASANT DRINK OF APPLES

Take about fifty Pippins; quarter and core them, without paring them: for the paring is the Cordialest part of them. Therefore onely wipe or wash them well, and pick away the black excrescence at the top; and be sure to leave out all the seeds, which are hot. You may cut them (after all the superfluities are taken away) into thinner slices, if you please. Put three Gallons of Fountain water to them in a great Pipkin, and let them boil, till the Apples become clear and transparent; which is a sign, they are perfectly tender, and will be in a good half hour, or a little more. Then with your Ladle break them into Mash and Pulpe, incorporated with the water; letting all boil half an hour longer, that the water may draw into it self all the vertue of the Apples. Then put to them a pound and a half of pure dubble refined Sugar in powder, which will soon dissolve in that hot Liquor. Then pour it into an Hippocras bag, and let it run through it two or three times, to be very clear. Then put it up into bottles; and after a little time, it will be a most pleasant, quick, cooling, smoothing drink. Excellent in sharp Gonorrhoeas.

SIR PAUL NEALE'S WAY OF MAKING CIDER

The best Apples make the best Cider, as Pearmains, Pippins, Golden-pippins, and the like. Codlings make the finest Cider of all. They must be ripe, when you make Cider of them: and is in prime in the Summer season, when no other Cider is good. But lasteth not long, not beyond Autumn. The foundation of making perfect Cyder consisteth in not having it work much, scarce ever at all; but at least, no second time; which Ordinary Cider doth often, upon change of weather, and upon motion: and upon every working it grows harder. Do then thus:

Choose good Apples. Red streaks are the best for Cider to keep; Ginet-moils the next, then Pippins. Let them lie about three weeks, after they are gathered; Then stamp and strain them in the Ordinary way, into a woodden fat that hath a spigot three or four fingers breadth above the bottom. Cover the fat with some hair or sackcloth, to secure it from any thing to fall in, and to keep in some of the Spirits, so to preserve it from dying; but not so much as to make it ferment. When the juyce hath been there twelve hours, draw it by the spigot (the fat inclining that way, as if it were a little tilted) into a barrel; which must not be full by about two fingers. Leave the bung open for the Air to come in, upon a superficies, all along the barrel, to hinder it from fermenting; but not so large a superficies as to endanger dying, by the airs depredating too many spirits from it.

The drift in both these settlings is, that the grosser parts consisting of the substance of the Apple, may settle to the bottom, and be severed from the Liquor; for it is that, which maketh it work again (upon motion or change of weather) and spoils it. After twenty four hours draw of it, to see if it be clear, by the settling of all dregs, above which your spigot must be. If it be not clear enough, draw it from the thick dregs into another vessel, and let it settle there twenty four hours. This vessel must be less then the first, because you draw not all out of the first. If then it should not be clear enough, draw it into a third, yet lesser than the second; but usually it is at the first. When it is clear enough draw it into bottles, filling them within two fingers, which stop close. After two or three days visit them; that if there be a danger of their working (which would break the bottles) you may take out the stopples, and let them stand open for half a quarter of an hour. Then stop them close, and they are secure for ever after. In cold freesing weather, set them upon Hay, and cover them over with Hay or Straw. In open weather in Winter transpose them to another part of the Cellar to stand upon the bare ground or pavement. In hot weather set them in sand. The Cider of the Apples of the last season, as Pippins, not Peermains, nor codlings, will last till the Summer grow hot. Though this never work, 'tis not of the Nature of Strummed Wine; because the naughty dregs are not left in it.

DOCTOR HARVEY'S PLEASANT WATER-CIDER, WHEREOF HE USED TO DRINK MUCH, MAKING IT HIS ORDINARY DRINK

Take one Bushel of Pippins, cut them into slices with the Parings and Cores; boil them in twelve Gallons of water, till the goodness of them be in the water; and that consumed about three Gallons. Then put it into an Hypocras-bag, made of Cotton; and when it is clear run out, and almost cold, sweeten it with five pound of Brown-sugar, and put a pint of Ale-yest to it, and set it a working two nights and days: Then skim off the yest clean, and put it into bottles, and let it stand two or three days, till the yest fall dead at the top: Then take it off clean with a knife, and fill it up a little within the neck (that is to say, that a little about a fingers breadth of the neck be empty, between the superficies of the Liquor, and the bottom of the stopple) and then stop them up and tye them, or else it will drive out the Corks. Within a fortnight you may drink of it. It will keep five or six weeks.

ALE WITH HONEY

Sir Thomas Gower makes his pleasant and wholesom drink of Ale and Honey thus. Take fourty Gallons of small Ale, and five Gallons of Honey. When the Ale is ready to Tun, and is still warm, take out ten Gallons of it; which, whiles it is hot, mingle with it the five Gallons of Honey, stirring it exceeding well with a clean arm till they be perfectly incorporated. Then cover it, and let it cool and stand still. At the same time you begin to dissolve the honey in this parcel, you take the other of thirty Gallons also warm, and Tun it up with barm, and put it into a vessel capable to hold all the whole quantity of Ale and Honey, and let it work there; and because the vessel will be so far from being full, that the gross foulness of the Ale cannot work over, make holes in the sides of the Barrel even with the superficies of the Liquor in it, out of which the gross feculence may purge; and these holes must be fast shut, when you put in the rest of the Ale with the Honey: which you must do, when you see the strong working of the other is over; and that it works but gently, which may be after two or three or four days, according to the warmth of the season. You must warm your solution of honey, when you put it in, to be as warm as Ale, when you Tun it; and then it will set the whole a working a fresh, and casting out more foulness; which it would do too violently, if you put it in at the first of the Tunning it. It is not amiss that some feculence lie thick upon the Ale, and work not all out; for that will keep in the spirits. After you have dissolved the honey in the Ale, you must boil it a little to skim it; but skim it not, till it have stood a while from the fire to cool; else you will skim away much of the Honey, which will still rise as long as it boileth. If you will not make so great a quantity at a time, do it in less in the same proportions. He makes it about Michaelmas for Lent.

When strong Beer groweth too hard, and flat for want of Spirits, take four or five Gallons of it out of a Hogshead, and boil five pounds of honey in it, and skim it, and put it warm into the Beer; and after it hath done working, stop it up close. This will make it quick, pleasant and stronger.

SMALL ALE FOR THE STONE

The Ale, that I used to drink constantly of, was made in these proportions. Take fourteen Gallons of Water, and half an Ounce of Hops; boil them near an hour together. Then pour it upon a peck of Malt. Have a care the Malt be not too small ground; for then it will never make clear Ale. Let it soak so near two hours. Then let it run from the Malt, and boil it only one walm or two. Let it stand cooling till it be cool enough to work with barm, which let be of Beer rather than Ale, about half a pint.

After it hath wrought some hours, when you see it come to it's height, and is near beginning to fall in working, Tun it into a barrel of eight Gallons; and in four or five days it will be fit to broach to drink. Since I have caused the wort to be boiled a good half hour; since again I boil it a good hour, and it is much the better; because the former Ale tasted a little Raw. Now because it consumes in boiling, and would be too strong, if this Malt made a less proportion of Ale; I have added a Gallon of water at the first, taking fifteen Gallons instead of fourteen. Since I have added half a peck of Malt to the former proportions, to make it a little stronger in Winter.

APPLE DRINK WITH SUGAR, HONEY, &c

A very pleasant drink is made of Apples, thus; Boil sliced Apples in water, to make the water strong of Apples, as when you make to drink it for coolness and pleasure. Sweeten it with Sugar to your tast, such a quantity of sliced Apples, as would make so much water strong enough of Apples; and then bottle it up close for three or four months. There will come a thick mother at the top, which being taken off, all the rest will be very clear, and quick and pleasant to the taste, beyond any Cider. It will be the better to most taste, if you put a very little Rosemary into the liquor, when you boil it, and a little Limon-peel into each bottle, when you bottle it up.

TO MAKE STEPPONI

Take a Gallon of Conduit-water, one pound of blew Raisins of the Sun stoned, and half a pound of Sugar. Squeese the juyce of two Limons upon the Raisins and Sugar, and slice the rindes upon them. Boil the water, and pour it so hot upon the ingredients in an earthen pot, and stir them well together. So let it stand twenty four hours. Then put it into bottles (having first let it run through a strainer) and set them in a Cellar or other cool place.

WEAK HONEY-DRINK

Take nine pints of warm fountain water, and dissolve in it one pint of pure White-honey, by laving it therein, till it be dissolved. Then boil it gently, skimming it all the while, till all the scum be perfectly scummed off; and after that boil it a little longer, peradventure a quarter of an hour. In all it will require two or three hours boiling, so that at last one third part may be consumed. About a quarter of an hour before you cease boiling, and take it from the fire, put to it a little spoonful of cleansed and sliced Ginger; and almost half as much of the thin yellow rinde of Orange, when you are even ready to take it from the fire, so as the Orange boil only one walm in it. Then pour it into a well-glased strong deep great Gally-pot, and let it stand so, till it be almost cold, that it be scarce Luke-warm. Then put to it a little silver-spoonful of pure Ale-yest, and work it together with a Ladle to make it ferment: as soon as it beginneth to do so, cover it close with a fit cover, and put a thick dubbled woollen cloth about it. Cast all things so that this may be done when you are going to bed. Next morning when you rise, you will find the barm gathered all together in the middle; scum it clean off with a silver-spoon and a feather, and bottle up the Liquor, stopping it very close. It will be ready to drink in two or three days; but it will keep well a month or two. It will be from the first very quick and pleasant.

MR. WEBB'S ALE AND BRAGOT

Five Bushels of Malt will make two Hogsheads. The first running makes one very good Hogshead, but not very strong; the second is very weak. To this proportion boil a quarter of a Pound of Hops in all the water that is to make the two Hogsheads; that is, two Ounces to each Hogshead. You put your water to the Malt in the Ordinary way. Boil it well, when you come to work it with yest, take very good Beer-yest, not Ale-yest.

To make Bragot, He takes the first running of such Ale, and boils a less proportion of Honey in it, then when He makes His ordinary Meath; but dubble or triple as much spice and herbs. As for Example to twenty Gallons of the Strong-wort, he puts eight or ten pound, (according as your taste liketh more or less honey) of honey; But at least triple as much herbs, and triple as much spice as would serve such a quantity of small Mead as He made Me (For to a stronger Mead you put a greater proportion of Herbs and Spice, then to a small; by reason that you must keep it a longer time before you drink it; and the length of time mellows and tames the taste of the herbs and spice). And when it is tunned in the vessel (after working with the barm) you hang in it a bag with bruised spices (rather more then you boiled in it) which is to hang in the barrel all the while you draw it.

He makes also Mead with the second weak running of the Ale; and to this He useth the same proportions of honey, herbs and spice, as for his small Mead of pure water; and useth the same manner of boiling, working with yest, and other Circumstances, as in making of that.

THE COUNTESS OF NEWPORT'S CHERRY WINE

Pick the best Cherries free from rotten, and pick the stalk from them; put them into an earthen Pan. Bruise them, by griping and straining them in your hands, and let them stand all night; on the next day strain them out (through a Napkin; which if it be a course and thin one, let the juyce run through a Hippocras or gelly bag, upon a pound of fine pure Sugar in powder, to every Gallon of juyce) and to every gallon put a pound of Sugar, and put it into a vessel. Be sure your vessel be full, or your wine will be spoiled; you must let it stand a month before you bottle it; and in every bottle you must put a lump (a piece as big as a Nutmeg) of Sugar. The vessel must not be stopt until it hath done working.

STRAWBERRY WINE

Bruise the Strawberries, and put them into a Linnen-bag which hath been a little used, that so the Liquor may run through more easily. You hang in the bag at the bung into the vessel, before you do put in your Strawberries. The quantity of the fruit is left to your discretion; for you will judge to be there enough of them, when the colour of the wine is high enough. During the working, you leave the bung open. The working being over, you stop your vessel. Cherry-wine is made after the same fashion. But it is a little more troublesome to break the Cherry-stones. But it is necessary, that if your Cherries be of the black soure Cherries, you put to it a little Cinnamon, and a few Cloves.

TO MAKE WINE OF CHERRIES ALONE

Take one hundred pounds weight, or what quantity you please, of ripe, but sound, pure, dry and well gathered Cherries. Bruise and mash them with your hands to press out all their juyce, which strain through a boulter cloth, into a deep narrow Woodden tub, and cover it close with clothes. It will begin to work and ferment within three or four hours, and a thick foul scum will rise to the top. Skim it off as it riseth to any good head, and presently cover it again. Do this till no more great quantity of scum arise, which will be four or five times, or more. And by this means the Liquor will become clear, all the gross muddy parts rising up in scum to the top. When you find that the height of the working is past, and that it begins to go less, tun it into a barrel, letting it run again through a boulter, to keep out all the gross feculent substance. If you should let it stay before you tun it up, till the working were too much deaded, the wine would prove dead. Let it remain in the barrel close stopped, a month or five weeks. Then draw it into bottles, into each of which put a lump of fine Sugar, before you draw the wine into it, and stop them very close, and set them in a cold Cellar. You may drink them after three or four months. This wine is exceeding pleasant, strong, spiritful and comfortable.

OF COOKERY

TO MAKE A SACK POSSET

Boil two wine-quarts of Sweet-cream in a Possnet; when it hath boiled a little, take it from the fire, and beat the yolks of nine or ten fresh Eggs, and the whites of four with it, beginning with two or three spoonfuls, and adding more till all be incorporated; then set it over the fire, to recover a good degree of heat, but not so much as to boil; and always stir it one way, least you break the consistence. In the mean time, let half a pint of Sack or White muscadin boil a very little in a bason, upon a Chafing-dish of Coals, with three quarters of a pound of Sugar, and three or four quartered Nutmegs, and as many pretty big pieces of sticks of Cinnamon. When this is well scummed, and still very hot, take it from the fire, and immediately pour into it the cream, beginning to pour neer it, but raising by degrees your hand so that it may fall down from a good height; and without anymore to be done, it will then be fit to eat. It is very good kept cold as well as eaten hot. It doth very well with it, to put into the Sack (immediately before you put in the cream) some Ambergreece, or Ambered-sugar, or Pastils. When it is made, you may put powder of Cinnamon and Sugar upon it, if you like it.

ANOTHER

To two quarts of Cream, if it be in the Summer, when the Cream is thick and best, take but two or three yolks of Eggs. But in the Winter when it is thin and hungry, take six or seven; but never no whites. And of Sack or Muscadin, take a good third (scarce half) of a pint; and three quarters of a pound of fine Sugar. Let the Sugar and Sack boil well together, that it be almost like a Syrup; and just as you take it from the fire, put in your ground Amber or Pastils, and constantly pour in the Cream with which the Eggs are incorporated; and do all the rest as is said in the foregoing Process.

Ambered-sugar is made by grinding very well, four grains of Ambergreece, and one of Musk, with a little fine Sugar; or grinding two or three Spanish Pastils very small.

A PLAIN ORDINARY POSSET

Put a pint of good Milk to boil; as soon as it doth so, take it from the fire, to let the great heat of it cool a little; for doing so, the curd will be the tenderer, and the whole of a more uniform consistence. When it is prettily cooled, pour it into your pot, wherein is about two spoonfuls of Sack, and about four of Ale, with sufficient Sugar dissolved in them. So let it stand a while near the fire, till you eat it.

A SACK POSSET

Take three pints of Cream; boil in it a little Cinnamon, a Nutmeg quartered, and two spoonfuls of grated bread; then beat the yolks of twelve Eggs very well with a little cold Cream, and a spoonful of Sack. When your Cream hath boiled about a quarter of an hour, thicken it up with the Eggs, and sweeten it with Sugar; and take half a pint of Sack and six spoonfuls of Ale, and put into the basin or dish, you intend to make it in, with a little Ambergreece, if you please. Then pour your Cream and Eggs into it, holding your hand as high as conveniently you can, gently stirring in the basin with the spoon as you pour it; so serve it up. If you please you may strew Sugar upon it.

You may strew Ambred sugar upon it, as you eat it; or Sugar-beaten with Cinnamon, if you like it.

A BARLEY SACK POSSET