An Analysis of Contemporary Sources to Uncover the Medieval Identity of the Drink Bochet

When Le Ménagier de Paris (1393), a medieval household manual detailing a woman's proper behavior in marriage and running a household, was newly translated and republished as The Good Wife’s Guide: a Medieval Household Book by the Cornell University Press in 2009, its collection of recipes – in...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Susan Verberg
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: EXARC 2020-08-01
Series:EXARC Journal
Subjects:
Online Access:https://exarc.net/ark:/88735/10519
Description
Summary:When Le Ménagier de Paris (1393), a medieval household manual detailing a woman's proper behavior in marriage and running a household, was newly translated and republished as The Good Wife’s Guide: a Medieval Household Book by the Cornell University Press in 2009, its collection of recipes – including one for bochet – became easily available to the general public. As the word bochet is not connected to a modern definition, the original French name for a recipe using caramelized honey was retained, and the word bochet began to signify the product of this one recipe: a mead made with caramelized honey. The homebrewing community embraced this bochet, and the resulting burnt-honey mead style has gathered enthusiastic followers. The renewed interest by the general public in the medieval period– whether truly medieval or not – is reflected in a practice whereby commercial craft brewers use neomedieval symbolism to brand their products and increase their potential value.
ISSN:2212-8956