Simple Hydromel.
Take pure Spring Water 2 quarts; Honey half a pound; boil it 'till its thoroughly scummed.
Some make it of Water 5 pints, and Honey 1 pint.
This may serve tp prepare any compound Hydromel with, is seldom used alone. Yet might be a good agreeable Drink, during the whole fit of an Asthma, for such as are troubled with an old Cough, or with Gravel or Sand.
Honey consists of a sweet, viscid Principle manifest, and of an Acrid Volatile something occult. From its Acridness, it detergeth and drieth; from its Viscidness, digesteth and healeth.
Thomas Fuller
Pharmacopeia Extemporanea 1710