Mulled wine is a traditional drink that accompanies all the winter holidays in Europe, served at every ski resort and just warming in the cold.
The homeland of this hot wine cocktail is Germany. The original name Glühwein literally means "flaming wine." According to legend, Odin himself warmed himself with this drink.
What was the drink originally?
There are a lot of ways to make mulled wine now. Almost every European tavern, from Prague to a bar in cold Ireland, has its own recipe for making a warming wine cocktail. Even in sunny Portugal there are methods and recipes, and in Germany and Austria, almost every family makes mulled wine differently.
But regardless of the variety of modern methods of how mulled wine is made, the recipe for a traditional, very first drink, according to the legends of the once served to Odin, remains unchanged.
The classic view consists of the following components:
- dry young red wine;
- honey;
- spices and herbs.
There was no water or sugar in the drink that was prepared before the Romans arrived in the German lands. Clear proportions, of course, did not exist either.
How to make an old drink?
How to make mulled wine in accordance with tradition? To do this, adhere to the following ratios:
- 150 ml of wine;
- a tablespoon of honey;
- a teaspoon of spices and dried herbs.
It is not known for certain which spices and herbs were used. But it is believed that these were cloves and thyme. There is a hypothesis that hops and heather were used in the first formulations. It is based on the preserved in the Irish epic, in which it was mentioned about the warming drink used by the Vikings. Considering that a song with this passage was transmitted orally over several generations, the reliability of the recipe remains highly controversial.
How to cook now?
There are no uniform requirements in the modern bar world about how to make mulled wine. This drink is considered a wine cocktail, that is, each bartender can add something from himself to the recipe. However, this does not mean at all that there is nothing unshakable.
How to make red wine mulled wine on Christmas winter days? This technique is quite conservative and has not changed for several centuries. It is such a drink today that is considered classic.
To create it, you will need the following ingredients:
- wine (dry red) - liter;
- water - 200 ml;
- clove buds - 8-9 pieces;
- nutmeg (mashed) - on the tip of a knife;
- sugar - 2-2.5 tablespoons;
- cinnamon - a stick or two;
- ginger (chopped) - 4-5 circles;
- An orange is one large or a pair of medium.
These ingredients are part of the hot wine, which is sold on Christmas day in every European square. The traditional recipe for making mulled wine has not changed since the 13th century.
How to cook?
In order to treat yourself and loved ones with hot wine in cold weather, you do not need to go to a bar or restaurant. You can make mulled wine at home without any special costs, since this drink does not imply the presence of expensive or rare components.
To prepare, you will need inspiration and the presence of:
- a knife;
- two enameled or steel containers;
- spoons;
- cutting board;
- ladle.
Of course, a stove will be needed. If we are talking about how to make mulled wine at home, while in the country, then you will need a garden kitchen. Portable tile also works.
Oranges need to be cut and placed in a saucepan or any other utensils. Pour in water, bring to a boil and simmer under the lid for 10 to 20 minutes. Before removing from heat, add sugar, cloves, cinnamon sticks and ginger. Close everything with a lid and let stand for at least 20 minutes. It is not necessary to remove the peel from the orange.
This is a kind of blank. While the "orange broth" is infused, dry spices swell in it, wine should be tackled.
The wine must be heated in a second saucepan. There are no tricks in this, but it is important not to allow the liquid to boil. Boiling spoils the taste, or rather, completely changes it and destroys the beneficial warming qualities of the cocktail. Accordingly, you should avoid strong fires that unevenly warm the contents.
When the wine is "half" hot, that is, it reaches a temperature of 40-50 degrees, you need to add an "orange broth" with spices and nutmeg to it. All should be mixed and thoroughly heated. The main thing is not to let the drink begin to boil.
Ready wine needs to be infused under the lid for about 10-20 minutes. During this time, slices of orange and other components will settle, so you don’t need to pour or strain anything.
Wine is poured into large glasses-mugs with thick walls, this helps to keep the drink hot for a long time.
The process of making hot wine cocktails never changes, no matter what ingredients are mentioned in the recipe. Technology is always one, the main thing in it is to prevent boiling wine.
How to maintain the temperature?
People who visited Christmas in European cities could not help but notice that mulled wine spills from large vats at festive fairs, under which fire constantly burns.
This simple technique is necessary so that the drink always remains hot. However, repeating this in an apartment or in a country house is quite difficult. You can make mulled wine at home without much difficulty, but maintaining its temperature is much more difficult.
Even the weakest fire of a gas burner or electric hob will sooner or later lead the wine to a boil. This is due to the fact that the volume of finished mulled wine is much less than in street vats, but the air temperature in the kitchen is several times higher.
When preparing a drink at the cottage in the outdoor garden kitchen for a whole company and in large quantities, it is quite acceptable to keep the wine hot in this way.
It is worth considering one point - the wine should be closed. Heating with open dishes, of course, will reduce the risk of boiling, but will lead to an equally dangerous process for taste - evaporation.
How to make a cold drink?
Mulled wine is often used as a prophylactic and therapeutic agent that effectively fights any types of colds and tones the body's own strengths. What wine is better to make this kind of drink from? What to add to it? These issues have been debated over the years.
It is optimal to use young blended red dry wine, but the rest of the ingredients are a matter of taste and their availability.
Wine prepared according to an old Austrian recipe is a good drink that effectively treats a runny nose, eliminates fever and cough, and also warms after hypothermia.
You will need the following ingredients:
- honey;
- dry apples
- orange peels;
- clove buds;
- thyme and nutmeg on the tip of a knife;
- allspice and black peppers;
- ginger;
- water;
- wine.
For a liter of wine you will need to take up to 0.5 liters of water, a couple of large tablespoons of honey and the same amount of orange peels, as well as 6-8 peas of peppers of each kind, 8-9 buds of cloves, a small chopped ginger root. The number of apples depends on their size. As a rule, during drying, cut into quarters, you need 10-12 such slices.
All dry components are steamed in water, honey is added, then mixed with hot wine and heated.
Prepared only from red dry?
In the modern bar world, there are two answers to the question of what kind of wine mulled wine is made from - dry red or any.
A traditional drink is made only from red and necessarily dry wines, but modern versions of this cocktail - from any. There are no restrictions if you adhere to the correct technology for its preparation.
Can technology be changed?
The technology of its creation also has its own nuances. Although conservative bartenders believe that cocktails obtained in violation of the rules of preparation can no longer be attributed to mulled wines.
For example, steamed. Its essence is that the drink is prepared without water, dry spices and a plate, and with the help of a cappuccino machine. All the necessary spices are either pre-soaked, that is, brewed like regular tea, or replaced with syrups. Wine and additives are whipped by the cappuccino machine of a conventional coffee machine, after which the drink can immediately be served on the table.
This cooking method appeared in the Alps in the eighties of the last century. There was a small weather cataclysm, that is, it suddenly and very cold. In one of the small coffee houses, initially focusing on coffee, chocolate and desserts, there were a lot of visitors, and all of them demanded mulled wine. Of course, the staff "sewn up" and did not have time. In the hearts of the barist, he poured wine, liquor and something else into the container, put the mixture under the cappuccino maker and gave it to the visitor. I liked the cocktail so much that I had to repeat it. The coffee house worked all evening in this way, and later the technique spread, finding both its admirers and fierce opponents.
Is it made from white?
Is mulled wine made from white wine? Many people, having heard this question, answer it in the negative, but in reality this is not so.
Recipes for making hot white wine are no less than years old than descriptions of the use of red. Only the geography is different - hot white wine appeared much south of the red cocktail, Macedonia is considered to be its homeland.
Technologically, the drink is prepared similarly to red mulled wine. That is, boiling is not allowed, spices and additives are prepared separately and poured into the wine. The only difference is that more water is traditionally taken. If the Greeks diluted simple wine even in antiquity 1: 1, then for the hot in the oldest recipes the proportion 1: 2 was used.
How to make a drink from white wine?
To prepare hot wine according to the recipe of the ancient Macedonians, such components will be required:
- oregano;
- caraway;
- white pepper;
- rosemary;
- cloves;
- cardamom.
All spices should be taken in equal amounts, so they create a harmonious taste, so not one of them should prevail. For example, if clove is clearly felt, but caraway is not felt, then the proportion is not quite right. Such errors sometimes occur when using ready-made spices of different ages. When buying seasoned bags, pay attention to the production date.
Spices are brewed like plain tea. This is very convenient, as you can try them and adjust the taste if necessary.
You need to use white dry wine in the traditional version, but you can also take sweet varieties. A liter of wine will need 0.5 liters of infusion of spices. The mixture warms up and is drunk immediately.
How to make mixed mulled wine?
Mulled wine - a traditional Christmas drink, the same visiting card of the holiday as Santa Claus and his deers.
However, festive Europe is not only about street fairs, sales in stores, gingerbread cookies and other attributes of a family bourgeois vacation. Young people celebrate the holiday a little differently, usually in clubs. Of course, not a single bar counter can do without Christmas features these days.
Traditional mulled wine is boring. But moving away from traditions on such days is not entirely correct. In one of the American clubs, they approached the question thoroughly, wondering about what kind of wine they make mulled wine on. And it was this nuance that the bartenders changed, leaving the rest of the recipe untouched.
The homeland of mixed mulled wine is Manhattan, and its preparation will require at least three varieties of dry wine - white, red and pink. However, there may be more species, and a combination of different sweets is allowed. The only requirement is that all wines are taken in the same volume. So, if 100 ml of dry red is available, then the remaining wines must be taken in 100 ml. For the rest, fantasy is not limited to anything, and the cooking technology does not differ from the usual one.