[Chat] Nectar of the gods

[jdy]

when r u having a 'nectar of the gods' tasting party?
Judy

On 07/24/2013 09:17 AM, Stephen J Gewirtz wrote:
> 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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