hist-brewing: Eggs in Wine

[Wade Hutchison]

Are you sure you haven't seen recipes that call for 
_floating_ an egg in wine?  This amounts to an Elizabethan
hydrometer.  I know that Digby refers to "floating an egg"
to the size of certain coins to determine the strength
(i.e. sugar content) of the must for some of the wines and
metheglins in "the Closet Opn'd."  This is a fun experiment
to try for a guild get-together.  Find some fresh eggs, and 
make up various sugar (or honey) solutions, then calibrate 
the eggs to modern coins and/or a ruler.

The egg whites I can't help you with, unless you're reading
a recipe that someone else mis-translated.
	-----wade/Gille MacDhnouill


At 07:07 AM 3/2/99 -0600, you wrote:
>Greetings Lords and Ladies,
>I have seen several recipies which call for the addition of eggs or egg
>whites in Mead and a few wine recipies.  I have yet to find a reference
>as to what the eggs were included for.  
<snip>
>Inservice,
>Morgan the Vintner

	Wade Hutchison
	whutchis at bucknell.edu
	Gille MacDhnouill
	Mountain Confederation/Abhainn Ciach Ghlais
	AEthelmearc

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