TO MAKE MEATH
To every quart of honey put four quarts of Springwater; temper the honey in the water, being a little warmed; then put it on the fire again, with Fennel, Rose-mary, Thyme, Agrimony, Parsley or the like. Let them boil half an hour, and upwards; and as it boileth, scum the froth; Then take it off, and strain it, and let it cool as you do your wort. Then put a little barm into it, then take off the froath again, and stir it well together. Then take two quarts of Ale, boiled with Cloves. Mace, Cinnamon, Ginger and Liquorice; and put it to the Meath and Tun it up.
A RECEIPT TO MAKE WHITE MEATH
Take Rose-mary, Thyme, Sweet-bryar, Peny-royal, Bays, Water-cresses, Agrimony, Marsh-mallow-leaves and flowers, Liver-wort, Maiden-hair, Betony, Eye-bright, Scabious, the bark of an Ash-tree, young Eringo-roots, Wild-Angelica, Ribwort, Sinacle, Roman-worm-wood, Tamarisk, Mother-thyme, Saxafrage, Philipendula, of each of these herbs a like proportion; or of as many as you please to put in. You must put in all but four handfuls of herbs, which you must steep a night and a day, in a little bowl of water, being close covered. The next day take another fresh quantity of water, and boil the same herbs in it, till the colour be very high; then take another quantity of water, and boil the same herbs in it, untill it look green; and so let them boil three or four times in several waters, as long as the Liquor looketh anything green. Then let it stand with these herbs in it a day and a night. Remember the last water you boil it in, to this proportion of herbs, must be eighteen Gallons. And when it hath stood a day and a night with these herbs in it after the last boiling, then strain the Liquor from the herbs; and put as much of the finest and best honey into the Liquor, as will bear an Egg; you must work the honey and liquor together a whole day, until the honey be consumed; then let it stand one whole night; then let it be well laboured again, and set it a clearing; and so boil it again with the whites of six New-laid-eggs with the shells; skim it very clean; and let it stand a day a cooling; then put it into a barrel, and take Cloves, Mace, Cinnamon and Nutmegs as much as will please your taste, and beat them all together, and put them in a Linnen bag, and hang it with a thread into the barrel. Then take the whites of two or three New-laid-eggs, a spoonful of barm, a spoonful of Wheat-flower, and beat them all together, and put it into your Liquor in the barrel, and let it work before you stop it; then afterwards stop it well, and set it in a cold place, and when it hath been settled some six weeks: draw it into bottles, and stop it very close, and drink not of it in a month after.
TO MAKE METHEGLIN
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.