Adventures cooking with Mead

Rymerpt · Sep 12, 2015

NICE!!!

Pariah · Sep 12, 2015

I've never had Mead, but I love frog legs.

grantmichaels · Sep 12, 2015

So curious .. where they at?

Guatemalan Insanity Pepper · Sep 12, 2015

...
I apologize for leavin' ya'll hangin'
I completely spaced it and forgot to show the rest of my Legs

Marinated Legs pre-battering

Marinated battered legs (I found the battering process easiest when done in ziploc bags 'Shake&bake' style)

leftover Ritz cracker, Dru BQ, yellow 7 pot powder mixture was combined with leftover egg white and chopped Bolsa de Dulce peppers and turned into mini-cakes

Frogs swimmin' in oil (they came apart a little, Guess i was a bit aggressive when shake battering them :lol:

)

Plated on a lily pad (Pickled Red Cabbage) served with Pickled Slaw & Onions(Red Cabbage,Carrot, Purple onion, all pickled)

so, you may be wondering, how was it and which 1 did i like the best..?

well the legs marinated in Mead & Pex Peppers Dragon Burner had the most flavor in the meat

this was my first time having/making Frog Legs (can you tell)

What do they taste like ?
well it wasn't like chicken

similar, yet a little bit like Gator too, the texture of the meat was the most unique part of the experience to me

Would i make them again ?
You bet, they were a nice change to boring fried chicken legs (though much less meat)

now to get me my own Gigging stick

anyway... thanks for looking, and allowing me to share my cooking with Mead adventures here.
There will be more so,
(ಠ_x) ༼☉
Keep an eye out

:cheers:

GIP

grantmichaels · Sep 12, 2015

Never had them,but they appeal to me and If they were readily avail I'd try 'em ...

Next new-meats here will be lamb, and then rabbit ...

CHEERS!

Thegreenchilemonster · Nov 12, 2015

Yes! Mead thread! Just started a batch of mead tonight with some delicious raw local honey. I pitched 5g Lalvin 71B-1122 which had been activated with a 1/4 tablespoon of yeast energizer, water at 102° F, and a tablespoon of the honey from this batch. 1.108 was the gravity reading. I didn't realize there was a mead thread, or I would have took more pics!

I also have another batch of mead going, as well as 7 gallons of cyser. I plan on reusing some of the yeast from the cyser for some small batch capsicumels as soon as the primary fementation is done on the cyser.

Here is a pic of the ingredients I used tonight on this batch of mead.

Guatemalan Insanity Pepper · Nov 12, 2015

Yes !

Mead thread revival :party:

I will be starting a batch of mead here soon with honey from a few local farms as well as some of Pexpeppers Wildflower honey

I look forward to seeing more of peoples adventures with Mead

:cheers:

Guatemalan Insanity Pepper

tctenten · Nov 12, 2015

I just made my first mead, it is in my beer thread. Really look forward to trying it. Waiting is the worst part.

Thegreenchilemonster · Nov 12, 2015

It's worth the wait! You are right though, the wait can be brutal. That's why it's nice to brew some cyser, wine, or beer as well, that way you can drink something else and forget about the mead. I plan on staggering the addition of yeast nutrients for the first few days of this mead, but it will still take a good 2-3 weeks for the primary to be done. Then I'll rack with some french oak chips on the secondary for another month. Then, I'll bottle it, and try not to drink it for a few more months.

Good thing I have plenty of other things brewing to hold me over for the wait.

Besides these, I also have the 7 gallons of apple pie cyser fermenting ATM.

Time to make use of the 5 ripe rocoto I still have growing outside and make some 1 gallon capsicumels!

Thegreenchilemonster · Nov 17, 2015

5 days after I pitched the yeast, this batch has been extremely aggressive with it's fermentation. I have been doing the Staggered Nutrient Additions as usual, plus aerating daily. I'm at the 1/3 sugar break, so I'm done aerating and adding nutes. The airlock is still beating about as fast as my heart ATM. Two weeks to go, then I'll rack to secondary with some oak chips. Here is a pic, the mead is to the left. Notice the color change from my previous post, which is when I pitched the yeast. The carboy in the middle is a chardonnay, and the one on the right is a Belgian pale ale that is on it's secondary fermentation, which I dry hopped with an extra ounce of Centennial hops. The hops on the BPA has dropped to the bottom of the carboy over the past couple of days, so I'll be bottling that one tomorrow. This thread is about mead though, so I will keep the updates about the mead going forward.

grantmichaels · Nov 17, 2015

I haven't tried mead yet, but plan to ...

Will be watching for your Brew Log thread in the alcohol sub =)

Thegreenchilemonster · Nov 17, 2015

You should definitely give mead a shot! Try to find a local apiary to get the best quality honey, and the best prices. The rawer the better! I don't have on online brew log, or grow log for chiles, or a food log unfortunately. I work full time, and keep myself occupied all of my other waking hours with projects. I just got done brining a 15 lb turkey with brown sugar, whole peppercorns, worcestershire, salt, 4 aji limo, 4 aji amarillo, and 2 rocoto. I'll be injecting it tomorrow with half crema de rocoto and half butter, dusting it with dry rub, then smoking it with apple wood. It's my day off, and my wife got a free turkey from her job, so might as well treat the bird right! I'll also bottle the BPA while the turkey smokes. Here is a pic of the bird, now back to the mead!!!

Guatemalan Insanity Pepper · Nov 17, 2015

yum

yum

and did i mention...
Yum

:cheers:

G.I.P.

Thegreenchilemonster · Nov 24, 2015

I just racked the mead to a clean carboy with 2 oz. of medium roast french oak chips. I dropped the oak chips in a solution of 1step and water for 30 minutes before hand to pull off any contaminates, and to get rid of that really dark oak coloring that usually bleeds in from chips. I also drank a nice wine glass full of the mead while racking. It's freaking good! Obviously it will be much better later on, but damn it hit hit the spot after a long day of work!
I didn't get a pic of the new carboy with the oaked mead, but you should be able to get the idea of what I'm working with of the pics of the chips and the primary carboy with the unoaked mead.

Thegreenchilemonster · Dec 8, 2015

I just finished racking this mead to a tertiary fermentarion, it is fully oaked. I pulled a couple of glasses while racking, and it is ridiculously good! I can"t wait to try it after it's done and bottled for a good 5-6 months. I'll let this one finish fermenting and clearing in this carboy for a month or so, then bottle it.

Thegreenchilemonster · Dec 29, 2015

I've been working 55 hour work weeks as of late, so I haven't had much time to post, but I finally got a day off today, and made some mead/melomel/cyser, among other things. I was at Trader Joe's and walked into their juice aisle today, which for some reason made me want to ferment some of it. I picked up 3 different types of preservative free juice, and figured it was time to make use of that cheap 80oz bottle of honey I've had sitting in my cupboard for months.

I split the honey 3 ways in jugs, then added the juice. Shook each jug extremely hard to aerate, then added 1 tsp of yeast nutrient, and 1/2 tsp of yeast energizer to each jug.

I had a yeast starter going with two 5 gram packs of Lalvin 71B-1122, a tablespoon of honey, a half teaspoon of yeast energizer, and 3 oz of distilled water. I split that yeast juice evenly into the 3 jugs, then popped on the airlocks. I placed the jugs with the rest of the mead and wine that's fermenting.

I then checked on the pot roast I started earlier today, because it smelled soooo good, and poured myself a glass of mead.

dragonsfire · Jan 2, 2016

Looks great !

Thegreenchilemonster · Jan 12, 2016

That oaked Mead cleared up very nicely. I bottled it up today, and drank a huge glass full of it while bottling. It's damn good for coming straight out of a carboy, of course a couple of months in wine bottles will do it some good as well. It has just the right amount of oak flavor and sweetness that I enjoy in a mead, with a 15% ABV.

tctenten · Jan 12, 2016

Wow. That looks really good. My first attempt at mead is about 75 days in and has cleared nicely. It is just a small 1 gallon batch.

Adventures cooking with Mead

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