[Chat] Nectar of the gods

[Stephen J Gewirtz]

Recently, I read /Cooked /by Michael Pollan.  In that book, Pollan talks 
about four methods of cooking: fire (grilling), water (braising), air 
(baking) and earth (fermenting).  It was the last method that was 
something new to me, and I decided to try it.

The first thing I tried was making kim chi (Korean fermented cabbage).  
That is still in progress.  I tasted it after a week, and it still needs 
more time, but I liked it and my wife did not.  BTW, kim chi makes quite 
an odor for the first two or three days of fermentation.

The next thing I tried was mead, the "nectar of the gods."  Mead is an 
alcoholic drink obtained by mixing raw honey with water and letting it 
ferment.  My first try used some honey that had crystallized, and I 
mixed it with water and let it sit for a week getting yeast out of the 
air.  Then, I corked the bottle it was in. It did ferment, and it has a 
kick to it (the alcohol).  But I prefer what I got next.

My second attempt, which is much tastier, was to take raw honey that had 
not crystallized (available from Woolsey Farm at the farmers' market) 
and to mix it with water and a tiny amount of instant yeast.  
Specifically, I took a pound of honey and mixed it with enough filtered 
water (you can also let the water sit overnight -- you need to get rid 
of the chlorine) to make almost two quarts total, plus 1/8 teaspoon of 
instant yeast (the same as I use when baking bread -- I would guess that 
other yeast would also work).  I let it sit in the bottle uncapped for 
about 3 days, then capped the bottle, opening the bottle twice a day to 
release the pressure building up from the carbon dioxide developed by 
the yeast and the sugar in the honey.  After two or three more days 
(taste it), I had a superb tasting drink which gave me a bit of a buzz.  
Now, the bottle is in the refrigerator.

The bottle I used is a stainless steel growler, i.e. a reusable bottle 
made to be filled and refilled with beer from a microbrewery.  I believe 
that it has just become legal in Maryland for some establishments that 
sell beer to fill growlers, but I have not tried getting a growler 
filled.  The growlers I got came from Williams Sonoma.

I have not yet tried it, but you can also add blueberries or other fruit 
to the mead to give it more flavor as it ferments.

Steve
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