Considering a hot communal drink for your winter festivities? How about a hearty spiked mulled cider worthy of the most daring Viking?
SCANDINAVIAN GLOGG
1 bottle apple cider
1 bottle port wine
1 cup whiskey
½ cup sherry
2 cups raisins
2 oranges, sliced
4 cinnamon sticks
15 cardamom seeds
15 cloves
¼ cup almonds, chopped
Pour juice and wine in large pan. Add whiskey and sherry. Put almonds, cardamom and cloves in cheesecloth, Tie tightly and lower into mixture (if cheesecloth unavailable, put in tea ball). Bring to boil. Turn down to medium low heat. Add cinnamon sticks, raisins, and orange slices. Simmer for two hours, stirring occasionally. Remove spices including cinnamon sticks. Made to be served hot but is also delicious cold.
Thanks, Lyn Ehley, for sharing your recipe.
Here’s to your good health. Skoal!
Cheers & Happy Reading!
Flossie Benton Rogers, Conjuring the Magic with Paranormal Fantasy Romance
Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Around here there’s a traditional recipe; red wine that is brought to boiling point. 2-3 spoonfuls of sugar added and stirred. Cinnamon and 1-2 pieces of orange peel too. Boiling it for 4-5 minutes. It’s always served as a hot drink, considered also a good remedy against cold.
That mulled wine you are talking about sounds very comforting, Carmen. Is it any certain kind of red wine, like a sweet port or just any kind? I like the idea of it as a cold remedy. It probably helps you get a good night’s sleep too. Many of the best things come from the traditions of old.
It’s usually red wine made from native/local vine that has small blackish grapes. I can certify it’s good remedy. I tried it a couple of times some years ago. It worked. Not for flu, but a common cold. Combined with feet in hot water where you add a handful of salt. Rest and lots of herbal tea. In the old times there weren’t so many pharmaceutical products. And people managed!
The old remedies have always fascinated me. I am fifth generation Floridian, but the ones before that came from Scotland, Ireland, and England by way of the Carolinas and brought with them the old folk ways and music. We have forgotten all that now, and I would love to know more. I can remember some interesting stories about folk medicine remedies from my grandmother. I’m not surprised that many of them work, since they were based on knowledge and experience of plants.