I picked up a bottle of each at farm shops in Sussex. Sadly, it turns out that I don’t really like either. Not because they’re particularly egregious representatives of their genre - they’re both pretty good objectively. Just that neither my husband nor I enjoy the flavours and mouthfeel.
So now I have two practically full bottles of sweetish booze sitting in my pantry and I don’t know what to do with them. Anyone have recipes I can use them in? Or cocktail ideas? As a last resort, I’ll try to palm them off to my neighbours, but if there’s something palatable I can use them in, I’d rather do that.
Do you like chicken marsala? I don’t care for it, myself, but that’s what comes to my mind. Or possibly something with pork, as pork works well with sweetish things.
I’ve never had dandelion wine (I know, right?! How is that possible, that the herbalist hasn’t had dandelion wine?!) but I have had mead. Sounds like you have a sweet mead, correct? (They’re not all sweet, although the commercial ones tend to be.)
Pork loin/tenderloin/should or duck glaze.
Breaded pork cutlets (pound 'em thin first) panfried with sliced onions and then simmered in mead.
Barbeque sauce.
Mead Caramel Sauce over ice cream (yes, really).
Use it to marinate any pork product - the alcohol will help to tenderize the meat and the sweetness will linger.
Salad dressings, use the mead in place of or in addition to vinegar.
Pears poached in mead.
I haven’t tried it (yet), but this stewed chicken recipe with mead in it looks pretty good.
The thing is, though, I *like *mead. I like mead and I love sweet-and-savory meat dishes. If you don’t, you’re going to be disappointed.
Perhaps you’d better just send me your mead, and while you’re at it, that dandelion wine. I’ll make sure it’s properly disposed of for you.
There’s a winery near me, Black Bear Winery, that makes only non-grape fruit wines, ciders, and meads. They occasionally make a dandelion wine, but theirs is incredibly dry.
As has been mentioned, mead is a pretty good meat glaze. Also 50/50 mead and cider makes a pretty decent summer drink. Still sweet, though, but less sticky,
The Chicken Marsala sounds intriguing. I’ll definitely try that out. A salad dressing will also be useful. And with spring coming, the cider-mead cocktail will definitely work out.
Cooking-wise, basically everyone seems to be recommending a BBQ sauce or a meat glaze. I don’t much like pork, but I’ll try it with chicken and see how that works out.