Whether your guests need entertaining, restoring, reviving after a hard day's Christmas shopping, or rescuing from toothache, we have the ideal selection of Christmassy drinks for you. These come from pagan ceremonies in the West Country, Germany, America, India and Elizabethan Berkshire. Enjoy!
This recipe promises gluhwein exactly like you'd get in a German Christmas Market. DI's own Russ has nipped off to go festive shopping in Germany, so we're expecting lovely presents from him this year, as long as he doesn't spend the whole budget on delicious market snacks...
The secret with any mulled wine is to mull the spices in water and sugar first, then add to the wine. This means plenty of flavour without boiling all the alcohol off!
For 9-12 people
1 orange
1.5 cups water
1/2 cup sugar
3 whole cloves
4 cinnamon sticks
4 whole star anise
2 bottles red wine
Zest the orange, set aside. Juice the orange and strain out the pips.
In a saucepan, heat the water and sugar until the sugar has dissolved. Add the cloves, cinnamon, star anise, orange zest and juice. Simmer until fragrant (which doesn't take long - less than 5 minutes).
Reduce the heat to very low and add the wine. Heat it long enough to infuse (10 mins) or keep warm for ages as your guests arrive. But don't let it simmer or it'll evaporate all the alcohol. If this happens you can add rum to reinvigorate it, but your guests will probably get happily raucous anyway, and without the fortification they can keep drinking gluhwein for longer.
Serve in small mugs garnishing with orange peel, star anise, cinnamon sticks or other decorative spices if you wish.
There are two meanings to Wassailing, just to confuse things. One is a bit like carol-singing crossed with Trick or Treating, where the peasants would go to ask for charitable donations from the lords of the manor. They might have sung a song (or threatened mischief) as in the carol We Wish You a Merry Christmas (Bring us some figgy pudding / And we won't go until we get some). But alongside this Christmas singing is another meaning: wishing your apple trees hail. Again this might be done around the new year, often on Old Twelfth Night (16th January, that is what would have been Twelfth Night before the loss of 11 days in the switchover to the Gregorian Calendar).
And if you're blessing the apple trees in your orchard, and at the same time provoking them to be productive this year, you need to show them what to produce. Wassail bowls therefore need to be filled with either mulled cider, or the rather theatrical drink, Lambswool, so named because of the fluffy baked apple on the top. This recipe comes from The Turning Of The Year by Lynne Tann-Watson, which is crammed full of sayings and recipes linked to old traditions, Christian and pagan, and the folklore of the British calendar.
Lambswool
4 Bramley apples (or another variety that fluff when cooked)
10 cups cider (or ale, though this may confuse your trees)
6 cloves
1 tsp nutmeg
3 allspice berries, whole
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 tsp cardamom seeds, bruised
1-2 tbsp sugar
Heat the oven to 200C / gas 6.
Places the apples in a baking dish with a little water and cook for 30 minutes til fluffy.
Heat the cider, spices and sugar until hot but not boiling. Strain.
Spread the apple pulp over the cider and serve, preferably in one big cup that everyone shares.
Don't forget to offer some to the Apple Tree spirit who lives in the oldest tree in the orchard. He is the keeper of the trees' fertility. In some places (especially in orchard counties like Somerset, Herefordshire, Devon and Gloucestershire) there may be Morris-like music and dancing at Wassail celebrations.
Makes 8 generous glasses
25g dates (stones removed)
40g cashew nuts
25g dried apricots
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
100ml rum
1 litre unsweetened almond milk
few drops vanilla essence
1 tbsp honey or maple syrup
ice and nutmeg to serve (plus optional ground allspice)
Soak dates, cashews, apricots and spices in rum overnight.
Next day, whizz these in a blender, adding the milk bit by bit, and finally the vanilla essence.
Serve with ice and grated nutmeg on top, plus a pinch of allspice if you want to up the spice level.
This is the classic cup of tea in Indian households, ideal for a natter with friends. It's not far off mulled tea.
350ml/12fl oz water
100ml/3½fl oz milk
4 black peppercorns
10 green cardamom pods, lightly crushed
small piece cinnamon stick
1 tsp fresh ginger, peeled and roughly sliced
1 clove
1 allspice berry
1 black tea bag
sugar, to taste
Heat the water and milk in a pan with the spices and ginger until it comes to the boil. Turn the heat down and cook over a low to medium heat for 15 minutes. Be careful as the milk can easily rise and boil over.
Once the volume is reduced by about a third, add the teabag and let it brew until the tea is the colour you'd like. Strain into a cup.
From Asian supermarkets you can buy ready ground Masala / Chai Tea spice, making the process even easier!
If catering for so many and running a household without any of our modern conveniences was beginning to take its toll, the Elizabethan houswife might need fortification before the festive season. A historical household had to provide its own medicines as well as food for meals, and old manuscripts give us a good idea which ailments were most common.
Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book gives this Drinke To Strengthen:
Take a pinte of Cowe whot milk, the yolks of ten egges, beat it very well together, put thereto halfe a pinte of good rose water, & a pinte of sack, & as much sugar as will sweeten it, & between two cups brew it as you doo butterd Beere, & in the morning fasting drink a good draught of it.
So JK Rowling didn't invent Butter Beer after all... This recipe sounds a good deal more appealing than many of the medicines in a manuscript belonging to Pepys, dating from the 1480s or so. The writer was obviously plagued mainly by toothache and migraines, but when the instructions begin "Take a pregnant rabbit..." you probably don't want to try it. (That particular concoction also involves a leather glove and some asafoetida.) On the other hand five betony leaves might really help "keep a feeble brain from drunkenness", as betony is still well used by herbalists, and is thought to improve blood flow and so help with hangovers.
The season of goodwill
For those looking to give something back this Christmas, here's our charitable suggestion of the day:
Welcome to Daily Info’s 2024 Advent Calendar – 24 days of events to celebrate the festive period and get ready to ring in the New Year!
This year's calendar offers a mix of Christmas activities - pantos, comedy shows, carol concerts etc, taking in traditions in Oxford and the wider area, as well as free diversions in December and some of the best happenings to book ahead for in 2025.
