At the mention of mulled wine, the soul immediately becomes warm, because mulled wine in German (Glühender Wein) literally means “hot wine”, or rather, well-warmed, with the addition of tart spices and sugar, table (mostly red) weak wine. The flavor of mulled wine is really amazing!
Europeans came up with mulled wine and traditionally drink it not only in Germany, but also in Austria, Great Britain, and also in the Scandinavian countries. Europeans prepare this low-alcohol drink primarily for Christmas, as well as for other holidays falling on the cool season, treat them to guests at home and enjoy buying it during the festive street festivals, since it really warms very well in the cold season.
I also sometimes like to cook my own version of mulled wine at home, especially when there are signs of a cold and is about to start to chill, and this spicy hot wine warms instantly - heat literally spreads through my veins.
You are wondering: how to cook mulled wine?
There are actually a lot of recipes for making mulled wine. In this case, in no case do you need to get expensive collection wine from your stocks , any table, semi-dry and even dry one will do. I take mainly red, although there is a recipe for mulled wine and white wine.
The simplest recipe for mulled wine involves wine, water, sugar and spices, among which cloves, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg are required, crusts of lemon or orange, raisins, and other pieces of your favorite fruit are also added to mulled wine. Spices are taken not crushed, but in whole or in fairly large pieces.
So, how to cook mulled wine at home?
I make it very simple - I take a bottle of table red wine, the alcohol content of which does not exceed 10% and buy a ready-made spice mix for mulled wine, which includes all the above ingredients plus raisins, cardamom.
I pour about a third of a glass of water into a turkish ladle or bucket (maybe a little more) and add spices to it, bring to a boil and cook on a small fire for just a couple of minutes, no longer, then remove from heat and let this broth brew for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, pour the wine into a saucepan and heat it to a warm state (without boiling!) And pour in a decoction of spices, add a tablespoon of sugar and heat it for some time, but again preventing the contents of the saucepan from boiling. This is important, as the over-boiled wine with spices has a completely different taste, noticeably worse than it should be.
The hot drink should be filtered through a sieve and immediately poured into tall thick-walled glasses with a pen or mugs so that the cooling of the drink is as long as possible, because they do not drink mulled wine in one gulp, but relish this hot spicy liquid. Sometimes, to enhance the taste and strength, a little cognac or liquor is added to mulled wine.
From such warmth and spicy smell it immediately becomes comfortable and the mood improves noticeably!
However, if there are other spices at home, this recipe can be very easily varied, for example, add 2-3 peas of allspice to a mixture of spices, you can experiment with the amount of sugar, especially if the wine is dry, add honey after removing from the stove to the strained mixture. And you get absolutely unique flavor combinations every time.
How to cook mulled wine with fruits?
The principle of preparation remains the same - heating the wine to about 70-80 degrees (no more), but instead of water, you can take, for example, apple juice, and you can take more juice, for example, a glass per bottle of wine, cut apples into slices, and garnish the drink with lemon slices. In this case, all the spices do not need to be added, but cloves and cinnamon will enhance the taste.
When preparing it, it is important to remember only the main points on how to cook mulled wine, and with additives, experiment in health and enjoy this soul-warming drink in a pleasant company!