In the Haven of Health (1584) are directions for making bragot, which are similar to those in the fourteenth-century receipt. “Take three or four galons of good ale or more as you please, two dayes or three after it is cleansed, and put it into a pot by itselfe, then draw forth a pottle thereof and put to it a quart of good English hony, and sett them over the fire in a vessell, and let them boyle faire and softly, and alwayes as any froth ariseth skumme it away, and so clarifie it, and when it is well clarified, take it off the fire and let it coole, and put thereto of peper a pennyworth, cloves, mace, ginger, nutmegs, cinnamon, of each two pennyworth, stir them well together and sett them over the fire to boyle againe awhile, then being milke-warme put it to the rest and stirre all together, and let it stand two or three daies, and put barme upon it and drinke it at your pleasure.”
Harrison (1578), in his Preface to Holinshed’s Chronicles, relates that his wife made a composition called Brakwoort, which seems to have been rather used for flavouring ale than as a distinct beverage. It contained no honey.
In Oxford Nightcaps metheglin, mead, and Bragon, or Bragget, are all mentioned as being compounded of honey. Idromellum, which by-the-by did not always contain honey,[71] was sometimes spoken of as Bragget. In Chaucer’s Miller’s Tale is mention of Braket:—
“Hire mouth was sweete as braket or the meth.”
[71] See p. 53.
The Wassail Bowl, according to Warton, was the “Bowl” referred to in the Midsummer Night’s Dream:—
Sometimes lurk I in a gossip’s bowl, In very likeness of a roasted crab, And when she drinks, against her lips I bob, And on her wither’d dewlap pour the ale.
In Hamlet our great dramatist uses the word “wassail”:—
The King doth wake to-night, and takes his rouse, Keeps wassail, and the swaggering upspring reels.
The chief ingredients of the ancient Wassail Bowl were, without doubt, strong ale, sugar, spices, and roasted apples. The following {381} receipt—the best of some half-dozen before us—is the one adopted at Jesus College, Oxford, where, on the festival of St. David, an immense silver-gilt bowl, which was presented to the college by Sir Watkin W. Wynne in 1732, is partly filled with this admirable composition, and passed round the festive board. Into the bowl is first placed half a pound of Lisbon sugar, on which is poured one pint of warm beer; a little nutmeg and ginger are then grated over the mixture, and four glasses of sherry and five pints of beer are added to it. It is then stirred, sweetened to taste, and allowed to stand covered up for two or three hours. Three or four slices of thin toast are then floated on the creaming mixture, and the wassail bowl is ready. Sometimes a couple or three slices of lemon and a few lumps of sugar rubbed on the peeling of a lemon are introduced. The slang term at Oxford for this beverage is “Swig.” In another receipt it is said that the liquor, when mixed, should be made hot (but not boiled), and the liquid poured over roasted apples laid in the bowl.