Merry Christmas
Ξ December 25th, 2007 | → 0 Comments | ∇ A Day at a Time |
Whether your sparkler is Champagne, a Cremant de Loire, a Clairette de Die, Blanquette de Limoux, Buget Cerdon, perhaps a Sekt, a Cave or Prosecco, whether American, English, Russian, or an Aussie bubbly, open any and all. Have a happy and safe holiday!
Admin
Best Wishes from the UK on this festive day, one of the few left where, for most people, family and happiness takes precedence over the mundanities of routine life. I hope you all have a great day and are going to be having a drop of something special - because if you can’t open the good stuff on Christmas day then when can you?
Greybeard
Waes Hael
The practice of drinking heated wine during the winter time is an ancient tradition in Europe. Harsh winters without the modern heating systems we enjoy made necessary warm alcoholic beverages for work and also social occasions. As civilization became, well, more “civilized” with the advent of the industrial age and modern technology, these necessary drinks became “traditional” for those wishing to retain the history of their ancestors.
It has many different names as regions and countries that made the drink, the most famous being Wassail from the Anglo Saxons and Glogg from the Norse countries in Europe. Of course the Vikings pillaged the British Isles a lot so I would think this traditions origin is probably Norse, plus it’s a lot colder there with a greater need for alcoholic warmth. Well that’s my excuse anyway to stay warm.
The drink has a million plus variations original recipes altered according to the region or area’s locally available produce. I’ve seen recipes where it’s just hot wine and honey or very complicated concoctions involving spices, eggs, curdled cream, ale and fruit. The ingredients of wassail came about because traditional ingredients such as apples were beginning to spoil the end of December from the time of their original harvest thus cooking them in honey, sugar and alcohol extended their viability.
During the middle ages, only the very rich could afford mulled wine with heavy amounts of spice and sugar. Sugar came about during the time of the Crusades and was probably known about since the time of Alexander the Great, but at $100 a kilo during the 1300’s it was a big luxury and honey while also very valuable was more available. So the drink became a celebratory tradition because of its ingredients and expense. Serving such a luxury to guests shows the magnanimity of the host. Special bowls were even created to partake in the tradition of passing around the drink at the hosts table.
Though this custom is associated with the Christmas holiday season, its origination is definitely Pagan. 
Along with the winter solstice (December 20-23 depending on the year) which is the shortest day or longest night depending on your point of view. The celebrations and traditions of the northern Pagan winter solstice were absorbed and merged into the Christian faith as a way to convert pagans. Wael Hael or Wassail was one of these traditions. Originally Wassailing or as we know it today as Caroling was a tradition to sing to the apple trees to make them produce more fruit. Also the practice was a form of begging where Wassailers would sing until paid to go away. I like that. I’m gonna sing until you can’t stand it anymore and have to pay me to go away. I remember an old Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers cartoon which had something similar, but I digress.
Regardless of the origins, caroling became tradition with the Christmas season and its songs associated with the drink are still sung today. “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” is one of these songs which the lyrics talk about the Wassailers saying “We won’t go until we get some” and of course blending in other old traditions such as “figgy pudding” which is in modern terms the good old traditional mainstay of the holiday season……..fruitcake, although the English figgy pudding version is quite yummy.
I’m getting way off track and you just want to know how to make the drink. Once you start making this stuff, I warn you it gets addicting. Make it with seasonal ingredients and it’s a fantastic way of using wine leftovers. Yea I know who has wine leftovers, well I do a lot, and since I live in the south so I have a running jug of sangria in the fridge, but during those two cold months we get down here, that jug is dumped into a stock pot. Narrow stock pot is better because of evaporation, but it really doesn’t matter and if you want to keep a continual batch (makes the house smell heavenly) a crock pot works a treat.
In researching this article I saw some pretty horrific ingredients which most included fruit juice concentrates and Pepsi and Coke. Also Wassail is alcoholic, it was always alcoholic and I appreciate the puritan sensibilities of people, but this is a wine site so no non-alcoholic version will be given. All you need is wine, ale or cider, whole cloves, whole cinnamon, apples (traditionally crab apples), candied ginger, oranges, lemons and honey or sugar (preferably honey) to taste. These ingredients are not in stone, use your best judgment. If you use sugar I would use demera sugar which is more what would have been used in medieval times. Take a couple oranges and shove a bunch of cloves into its skin and some small apples (use firm apples that bake well like Crab or Granny Smith etc, don’t use an apple that would easily fall apart) and bake them whole in an oven around 300 for half an hour. 
You don’t want to “cook” the fruit; you just want to loosen the juice from it so it will bleed into the wassail and season it. Don’t worry about the cloves falling off the oranges, they will, its fine. Take the oranges out, stab it a few times with a fork and put it in the stockpot with the whole apples, whatever wine you have 3 bottles or equivalent ale or cider or all three. Sweet wine, dry wine, sweet or dry cider, ale whatever, it’s okay. If you like it a bit “stiffer” put some brandy or port in it. Put 3 or 4 sticks of cinnamon, dried or candied ginger, freshly shaved nutmeg, maybe some lemon slices all to taste. If the wassail tastes “flabby” add more lemon slices to boost the acid content of the drink. Add sugar or honey until it’s to your desired sweetness. Put on a low heat and do not let it boil, as you will boil off the alcohol. You want to extract the flavors from your ingredients so cook on low for a good hour and then enjoy. If you feel it’s too strong all around add hot water, but a little water goes a long way. Have fun with it.
What? Not the recipe you were expecting? I just gave you the tools to make your own wassail tradition, next is up to you. There’s no incorrect way to make it, well, unless you use those nasty processed ingredients instead of fresh.
From my Family to Yours,
Happy Holidays!
Donna
