The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Knight OpenedDigby, Kenelm
History
The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Knight Opened
Digby, Kenelm
Cooking -- Early works to 1800; Digby, Kenelm, Sir, 1603-1665; Liquors; Wine and wine making -- Early works to 1800
Take Spring-water, and boil it with Rose-mary, Sage, Sweet-Marjoram, Balm
and Sassafras, until it hath boiled three or four hours: The quantity of
the Herbs is a handful of them all, of each a like proportion, to a Gallon
of water. And when it is boiled, set it to cool and to settle until the
next day: Then strain your water, and mix it with honey, until it will
bear an Egg the breadth of a Groat. Then set it over the fire to boil. Take
the whites of twenty or thirty Eggs, and beat them mightily, and when it
boileth, pour them in at twice; stir it well together, and then let it
stand, until it boileth a pace before you scum it, and then scum it well.
Then take it off the fire, and pour it in earthen things to cool: and when
it is cold, put to it five or six spoonfuls of the best yest of Ale you can
get: stir it together, and then every day scum it with a bundle of Feathers
till it hath done working: Then Tun it up in a Sack-cask and to every six
gallons of Metheglin put one pint of _Aquavitae_, or a quart of Sack; and a
quarter of a pound of Ginger sliced, with the Pills of two or three Limons
and Orenges in a bag to hang in it.
The Whites of Eggs above named, is a fit proportion for 10 or 12 Gallons of
the Liquor.
TO MAKE WHITE MEATHE
Take six Gallons of water, and put in six quarts of Honey, stirring it till
the honey be throughly melted; then set it over the fire, and when it is
ready to boil, skim it clean; then put in a quarter of an Ounce of Mace; so
much Ginger; half an Ounce of Nutmegs; Sweet-marjoram, Broad-thyme and
Sweet-Bryar, of all together a handful, and boil them well therein. Then
set it by, till it be throughly cold, and barrel it up, and keep it till it
be ripe.
ANOTHER TO MAKE MEATHE
To every Gallon of water, take a quart of Honey, to every five Gallons, a
handful of Sweet-marjoram, half a handful of Sliced-ginger; boil all these
moderately three quarters of an hour; then let it stand and cool: and
being Lukewarm, put to every five Gallons, about three quarts of Yest, and
let it work a night and a day. Then take off the Yest and strain it into a
Runlet; and when it hath done working: then stop it up, and so let it
remain a month: then drawing out into bottles, put into every bottle two or
three stoned Raisins, and a lump of Loaf-sugar. It may be drunk in two
months.
ANOTHER VERY GOOD WHITE MEATH
Take to every Gallon of water a quart of Honey: boil in it a little
Rose-mary and Sweet-marjoram: but a large quantity of Sweet-bryar-leaves,
and a reasonable proportion of Ginger: boil these in the Liquor, when it is
skimed; and work it in due time with a little barm. Then tun it in a
vessel; and draw it into bottles, after it is sufficiently settled. Whites
of Eggs with the shells beaten together, do clarifie Meath best. If you
will have your Meath cooling, use Violet and Straw-berry-leaves, Agrimony,
Eglantine and the like: adding Borage and Bugloss, and a little Rosemary
and Sweet-Marjoram to give it Vigor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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