Everyone feels welcome walking in the door if greeted by the aroma of a simmering pot of wassail. Sniffing wisps of the pungent spices (cinnamon, cloves and allspice) with top notes of fruity aromas is likely to bring on a flood of pleasant memories from childhood past.
It is perfect to use when entertaining a dinner crowd of family +/or friends or it can just as easily welcome visitors to a holiday open house by merely scaling the recipe up proportionally.
Don’t underestimate the importance of the aromatic bitters in this recipe–it is one ingredient that you don’t want to leave out!
My late Mother-in-law was quite fond of this beverage and used to usher in Thanksgiving with it. We miss her at “turkey time” as she called it, but once the wassail starts simmering on the cooktop, somehow we miss her just a little bit less…
Old Fashioned Wassail aka Spiced Wassail
(makes approximately 18 – 1/2 cup servings or 10 mugs full)
Ingredients:
- 6 cups (aka 1 & 1/2 qts) of apple cider (a blend of NYS apples is recommended)
- 2 cups (aka 1/2 qt) of cranberry+another fruit juice as a blend (look for all juice as in cranberry-pear, cranberry-pear-grape, cranberry-raspberry, or even cranberry-peach)
- 1/4 cup of brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon whole allspice
- 1 teaspoon aromatic bitters
- 4 -6 inch cinnamon sticks, broken in half
- 2 large oranges evenly studded with 1 Tbsp total of whole cloves
Method:
- Simmer the above ingredients for at least ten or preferably 30 minutes (the longer you simmer the mixture, the stronger the spice flavor will be),
- Pour the liquid through a fine sieve.
- (Reserve the clove studded oranges, cinnamon sticks and allspice as those will continue to fragrance the air until they cool; then place in a tightly sealed container & refrigerate for future use).
- If desired, add 1 cup of (white) rum to the wassail beverage before serving.
ENJOY!
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