Spiced Honey Water from Digby’s 1669 Mead
Reader ratingsHoney simmered in water with ginger, a clove and rosemary, then chilled: Sir Kenelm Digby’s weak 1669 mead, stopped before the yeast goes in.
- Recipe makes
- About 1 liter, 4 glasses
- Prep
- Cook
- Total
Includes about 45 minutes for the honey water to cool in a sink of cold water and about 2 hours in the fridge. Left to cool on its own, it needs about an hour more.
Spiced honey water in a greenish hand-blown beaker, with a stoneware honey pot, sliced ginger, a clove and rosemary.
The story behind the recipe
This is a mead recipe stopped halfway. Sir Kenelm Digby’s “Hydromel as I made it weak for the Queen Mother” dissolves one quart of honey in eighteen of spring water and boils it with ginger, cloves and rosemary before the yeast goes in. Taken off at that point and chilled, it is a lightly sweet, spiced honey water with no alcohol in it.
A drink for the Queen Mother
Digby’s book, The Closet of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelme Digby Kt. Opened, came out in London in 1669, four years after his death. It is crowded with meads and metheglins, and this one he made, he says, for the Queen Mother: “Thus was the Hydromel made that I gave the Queen, which was exceedingly liked by every body.” The spices went in by the root and the sprig: “one Race of Ginger,” “four Cloves, and a little sprig of green Rosemary,” left to boil until the liquor had boiled for an hour in all.
It is English, and six centuries too late to be a Viking recipe. Mead, in the sagas and poems, belongs to gods, poets and kings; for the ale, milk and sour whey of ordinary Norse households, read What Did the Vikings Drink? Digby’s is an early English mead recipe that a home cook can still follow.
Read more about this recipe
Stopping before the yeast
Leaving out Digby’s “spoonful of Ale-yest” is our change, and it is what keeps the drink alcohol-free. The ratio stays his, so a liter of water takes 55 ml of honey. His hour-long boil suited eighteen quarts; it would boil a single liter down by a third, so this version simmers covered for 15 minutes. A clove and three slices of ginger give a liter rather more spice than Digby’s proportions would, our choice for a drink served on its own. By our arithmetic it carries about 64 grams of sugar a liter, a little over half the sugar of cola.
Honey must not be given to babies under one year old, as the University of Florida IFAS Extension warns. To ferment the same liquor as Digby did, see Digby’s Weak Hydromel. For a sharper Roman honey drink, there is Oxymel, honey and vinegar in water.
Take 18 quarts of spring-water, and one quart of honey; when the water is warm, put the honey into it. ... Then put in one Race of Ginger (sliced in thin slices,) four Cloves, and a little sprig of green Rosemary. Let these boil in the Liquor so long, till in all it have boiled one hour. Then set it to cool, till it be blood-warm; ...
Digby goes on to add ale-yeast and bottle it; this drink stops before the yeast. His full receipt is on Digby’s Weak Hydromel.
Recipe makes: About 1 liter, 4 glasses
Ingredients
For About 1 liter, 4 glasses. Quantities are shown as written.
Quantities as written here, for About 1 liter, 4 glasses.
- Water1 l
- Runny honey55 ml
- Thin slices fresh ginger3
- Clove1
- Fresh rosemary, about 3 cm1 sprig
Measurement notes
Ingredients as written here
- 1 l water
- 55 ml runny honey
- 3 thin slices fresh ginger
- 1 whole clove
- 1 sprig fresh rosemary, about 3 cm
Equipment
Saucepan with a lid
Wooden spoon
Fine sieve
Jug
Instructions
Warm the water in a saucepan and stir in the runny honey until it dissolves.
Bring it to the boil and skim off any foam that rises.
Add the fresh ginger, the clove and the rosemary, cover the pan, lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
Strain into a jug and stand it in a sink of cold water until it reaches room temperature, about 45 minutes. Chill for about 2 hours.
Serve cold, in small glasses.
Nutrition
60calories per serving
- Recipe makes
- About 1 liter, 4 glasses
- Servings
- 4
Estimated from USDA FoodData Central values for honey, for four glasses; the ginger, clove and rosemary add nothing measurable.
Recipe notes
When adjusting quantities
Keep Digby’s ratio of eighteen parts water to one of honey by volume when you scale.
Notes
Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the batch.
A “Race of Ginger” is usually read as a whole root. For a stronger ginger taste, grate it instead of slicing it.
Modern filtered honey throws little scum, so there may be nothing to skim. A darker honey gives a deeper color and a stronger flavor than a light, floral one.
Keep the honey water in the fridge, not on the counter: it is sweet and unfermented, and left warm it can start to ferment on its own.
Storage
Keep covered in the fridge and drink within 3 days.
Scaling changes the ingredients only; glassware, ice and timings need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.
Sources and attribution
Sir Kenelm Digby, The Closet of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelme Digby Kt. Opened (London, 1669), “Hydromel as I made it weak for the Queen Mother”, pp. 36–37
See the original pages (scan at Internet Archive) (opens in a new tab)
Recipe details
- Drink
- Alcohol-free
- Drink family
- Sodas & Soft Drinks
- Region
- British
- Era
- 17th century
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Season
- Summer