Chicken Beer
Redaction by THL Dagonell Collingwood

It occurred to me that for completeness sake,
I should document my failures as well as my
successes.

This recipe is from "The Closet Opened" by Sir Kenelme 
Digby, (pg.147)

TO MAKE COCK-ALE
"Take eight gallons of Ale; take a Cock and boil him
well; then take four pounds of Raisins of the Sun
well stoned, two or three Nutmegs, three or four
flakes of Mace, half a pound of Dates; beat these all
in a Mortar, and put to them two quarts of the best
Sack; and when the Ale hath done working, put these in,
and stop it close six or seven days, and then bottle it,
and a month after you may drink it."

I wasn't about to use up eight gallons of beer on 
a dubious experiment at best, so I cut all proportions
by one-eighth.  

1 chicken
1 gal. ale
1/2 lb. raisins
1 t. ground nutmeg
1 t. ground mace
1 pt. white wine

Boil the chicken in ale.  When the chicken is cooked,
serve it.  Let the ale cool back to room temperature.
Add the raisins, nutmeg, mace and wine.  Bottle the 
mixture tightly and store in a cool, dark, dry place
for a month.  

After a month, I poured off a shot-glass worth and 
drank it.  The rest got pitched down the drain. :(