The Art of Mead Tasting and Food Pairing

Since the beginning of time, man has asked, "How can I turn THAT into booze?" With grain or grapes, you know the answers, but most Americans know little about mead, beer and wine's honey-based cousin.Why I enjoyed this gorgeous book:- Chrissie Manion Zaerpoor is passionate about every aspect of mead. This isn't like a cookbook by, say, the Notorious B.I.G., where the supposed author probably had little to do with writing it. It's aimed at an intelligent audience, so if you DID enjoy the Notorious B.I.G. Cookbook, this might not be for you.- The photographs are excellent and have a consistent style. In principle, photographing food is easy: it doesn't move, and you can arrange the lighting however you want. In practice, there are a lot of bad pictures of food out there. You won't find them here.- The recipes aren't more complex than is absolutely necessary. I read the Wall Street Journal, which features simplified recipes by famous chefs. The SIMPLE versions seem to average 15 ingredients, invariably things I've never heard of, or wouldn't know where to buy (e.g., spicy Argentine beef tongue sausage). This book emphasizes excellence in ingredients and preparation, not unneeded complexity.- The book is extremely well-constructed physically. Think of a 400+ page full-color textbook with excellent binding, precisely cut pages, picture bleed to the edge of pages, etc.- It makes you recognize that humans are omnivores, and that quality meats and moderate alcohol can be part of a healthy lifestyle. Americans seem to rush from one eating fad to another, thinking that the latest one will make up for their sedentary lifestyles and poor lifestyle choices. Most recipes here -- including the meads -- are similar to things people have eaten for thousands of years. Having McDonalds and a 6-pack every night is bad for you, but that doesn't mean that you can't enjoy some mead with your Japanese Braised Pork Belly.

I'm an owner of Space Time Mead & Cider Works. I have been making mead for 10 year and this book is foundational material for anyone wanting pragmatic understanding of what mead is, its history, and how to treat mead. Broad coverage of mead history/origins in cultures, extending into modern meads. This book was used as key source material for mead presentations to community groups, and required reading as part of my training program for all new hires.

I just received this book yesterday, and I already love it. I spent an hour just turning though the pages. It is a HIGH QUALITY book, that can easily be showcased on the coffee table, but will likely be kept in the kitchen at our house, ready to use. The recipes all seem quite easy to follow, and I am pleased that most of them use everyday ingredients. We will enjoy trying to recreate these lovely recipes!

There is not a book like this around. The guidelines for pairings are great and they are spot on. I have already started several pairings and they do work.This will become the standard reference as the mead industry continues to grow.

This book is a great read for anyone who is into food. Thinking about how flavors work together is helpful for everyday dinners to hosting parties. I recommend this to anyone who likes mead, or wine, or beer.In addition, it is chock-full of recipes, multiple organized indexes, and side bar information.I have read multiple pairing guides, books, and blogs, and it just doesn't make sense like this book does.

Execelent book!

'The Art of Mead Tastings & Pairing is masterfully produced. Reading somewhere between an encyclopedia and a personal tour of her experiences through the world of mead.It delivers fully on how to pair your meads with food. Going as far as to describe what aspects work and offering numerous recipes to support the pairings. It's sorted carefully into regions as well as styles.Whether you consider yourself an expert or have never heard of the word Mead before this book will have plenty to teach you. I also enjoy the ribbon bookmark attached to the book. Though I find myself wishing there were more to hold the spots of all the great recipes I hope to try. As a professional chef and mead maker, the recipes were particularly interesting to me.Chrissie puts a new twist on a lot of traditional recipes to make them more mead friendly. Utilizing her knowledge of ingredients like mead vinegar and honey instead of sugar. Or mead instead of wine, she integrates them seemlessly with spices and items to create marvelous pairings. They are accessible for all skill levels and great whether you need a quick weeknight meal idea or a dish to wow your dinner guests.The appendices also gather up the ever growing producers of mead making my future purchases and trips that much easier to track

What an amazing book! When this book showed up at our meadery to sell, I wasn't sure what I would find between the pages. But, I am truly floored by not only the beauty, but the rich content too! Lots of full color pictures of mouth-watering food and lovely glasses of mead. And so much information!Often, customers come in and ask what foods our meads would pair with, assuming, as many do, that all meads are sweet and so only go with dessert. We enjoy letting people taste meads that are dry and then talking about how they could pair them with dinner, like a traditional grape wine. This book takes that to a whole new level! Not only with great recipes (which I am so excited to try), but also with charts of foods listing multiple meads that would pair with them.We have given a copy to each of our employees for the vast amount of information on history, global meads, and pairing. I think I may make it required reading when I hire!Becky Starr, owner Starrlight Mead, Pittsboro, NC