PrintDrinking Up Apple: Wassailing Day
It’s too bad we’re not all in rural Carhampton right now, or Gloucestershire, or really any Western European village with an apple orchard celebrating Apple-Wassailing Day. Rousing apple trees from sleepy wintertime, in hopes of a bountiful crop later this year, is a sport for many Brits on January 17th each year. As apple cheerleaders, they carry torches and bang on pots and pans to wake-up napping Fijis and Staymans.
At the core (heh) of this, is the hot wassail, a spiced drink that falls somewhere between cider, punch and mulled wine (each village has their own recipe, some with dry sherry or beer). Villagers rally around the biggest apple tree then pour hot wassail all over tree roots and finally break out the shotgun to scare away evil, crop-ruining spirits.
It’s hard to find Shakespearean-era apple folklore festivals on this side of the pond, but some pubs whip up the 17th century cocktail in December and January. It wasn't on this otherwise awesome wintertime drink-tionary, but an Irish pub in Newport Beach, California called Muldoon's serves up a lovely version in snifters, with adorable crabapples sinking at the bottom.
A call to Muldoon's this morning revealed a pleasant hostess who gave me the house recipe in her Irish brogue.
Photograph from temporalata on Flickr
About the author: Erin Zimmer, Serious Eats's Washington, D.C., correspondent, is a just-graduated Georgetown gal following her nose about town as Washingtonian magazine's Dining intern and Best Bites blogger. She got her start as the Hoya campus paper's food columnist, and since entering "real person-hood" has ached for her dining hall's omelet station.
Muldoon's House Apple Wassail
Ingredients
4 cups red wine (Burgundy is fine)
2 cups cranberry juice
2 cups apple cider
Juice of an orange or tangerine
Orange zest from the rind
1/2 tsp cloves, nutmeg and any other like-minded spice
Cinnamon sticks
Procedure
Bring liquids to a boil, then add spices and serve!
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1 Comment:
What a charming tradition! I'm behind any celebration that comes with a signature beverage. Speaking of which... isn't mardi gras going down right now? Shouldn't you folks be wooing me with chicory coffee and beignets?
missginsu at 5:30PM on 01/17/08