Mulled wine is not just warmed up with spices. This drink has already become a wonderful tradition, a special winter ritual. There are many ancient legends about this hot elixir, which warms not only the body, but also the soul. The ancient Roman culinary specialist Alicius noted that only refined wine turns a person into a true gourmet, and was one hundred percent right.
Warm, warmed wine back in the Middle Ages was very popular. On cold winter evenings by the fireplace, a warming drink was welcome both in the homes of noble knights and in the modest dwellings of commoners. The mulled wine recipe is sustained for centuries. Its magical tart taste is never erased in memory. What are the ingredients for mulled wine at home? This will be discussed further.
General principles for making mulled wine
There are unwritten rules for preparing this wonderful drink, following which even an inexperienced housewife will be able to please her guests and home with the bright taste of a magical hot drink.
- Spices are always added to mulled wine, this is one of the main principles. Each hostess chooses herself which spices to use. The aroma and the special, unforgettable taste of the drink depend on their composition and quantity.
- Mulled wine should not be boiled, because at the same time all the wonderful qualities of the wine disappear - its taste, aroma and properties are changing far from the best.
- The basis for mulled wine is always only red wine. You can add very little brandy, rum to it - it all depends on the hostess's preferences or the characteristics of the recipe.
- Spices should always be boiled in water first.
- Mulled wine must be cooked constantly stirring over low heat so that the aroma of spices dissolves in it as best as possible.
- The drink must be insisted so that its taste becomes more saturated.
- Before serving the mulled wine must be filtered.
Classic Mulled Wine Recipe
What ingredients are needed for mulled wine? It will take water - one and a half cups, a bottle of red wine, a pair of apples and oranges, a little honey or sugar, spices to taste.
We put water on the fire and add spices - cloves, cinnamon, star anise. Ground spices should not be used so that the drink is not cloudy. Bring these ingredients for mulled wine to a boil, leave for 10 minutes.
We cut the fruit into cubes, previously scalding them with boiling water. We use apple, orange, lemon. Add fruit to the spice broth. First, citrus fruits, they need to be lightly crushed so that the juice comes out. Following apples, then - honey. You can replace sugar, but the taste and smell will be different.
Now pour the wine, heat the drink and hold at a temperature of sixty to seventy degrees. The main rule for making mulled wine is not to boil the wine.
Strain before serving. The drink is ready, you need to serve mulled wine with fragrant ginger cookies. Remember, in everything you need to observe the measure, and therefore you should not use more than two glasses of mulled wine in one evening.
German mulled wine
German mulled wine is not very intoxicating and gives more vigor rather than relaxing. In this, as they say, is his national peculiarity.
To prepare German mulled wine, you will need red wine, freshly squeezed orange juice and - a completely unexpected ingredient - this is a strongly brewed and strained black tea. For a serving for two or three, a glass of each of these drinks is enough. They should be mixed in one container and put on a small fire.
Spices: cloves - a pair of chopsticks, to the taste of anise and cardamom. They are added directly to the mixture heating over the fire.
The orange is cut into slices and added to the warming drink. If you want to make the mulled wine stronger, you can pour fifty grams of rum, liquor, cognac or whiskey into a fragrant mixture.
You can sweeten mulled wine with a couple of spoons of granulated sugar.
As soon as white foam appears, but the drink has not yet boiled, you can remove it from the heat and pour it hot into the glasses, without fail filtering it.
He will be very good outdoors, during outdoor recreation, on a winter evening by the Christmas bonfire.
Non-alcoholic mulled wine
Wine is optional in the list of ingredients for mulled wine. For those who cannot afford alcohol, you can make a soft drink. The same tart, aromatic, warming, as with wine. The difference between this drink is that it can be drunk even in the morning, going to school or work. Everyone can drink this drink - both elderly people and children. It contains many useful vitamins and minerals, tones, boosts immunity. In addition, the taste practically does not differ from mulled wine prepared on wine.
What are the ingredients for non-alcoholic mulled wine? At home, it is usually prepared on the basis of fruit juices. You can use different options - cherry, grape, cranberry, any berry. Everything that you like will be to your taste and to which the soul will reach. By the way, if you want to experiment, then non-alcoholic mulled wine is the most suitable drink for this. Therefore, it can even be prepared on the basis of a mixture of different juices.
You will also need a lemon peel (about a tablespoon), one orange and a fragrant apple. They need to be cut into slices and cooked directly in mulled wine.
You can not use only juice, because then the drink will be too sugary. Therefore, you need water.
Preparation of a fragrant spice mix
Mulled wine - a fragrant drink, spices are needed. By the way, in the store you can buy special ready-made sets of spices for mulled wine. However, it is better to prepare a mixture of aromatic herbs yourself.
- It will take two sticks of cinnamon, you can take and ground - about a teaspoon.
- Fresh or dry ginger, you will need to grate it a little to give the drink a slight pungency and a spicy smell.
- You can take a pinch of ground cardamom. However, it is better to use whole grains.
- Clove - three pieces.
- Allspice - two pieces.
Technology for the preparation of non-alcoholic mulled wine
First, in a separate bowl, mix all the spices so that they can be immediately poured together in a boiling mixture. Fresh ginger is peeled, cut or rubbed on a fine grater. It will take a very small piece of it so that the ginger taste and smell do not interrupt the aroma of other spices and ingredients.
Apple and orange can be cut into small cubes or slices. By the way, oranges cut in semicircular slices look much nicer in mulled wine. Peel is removed from a lemon. To do this, on a fine grater from a whole lemon, only the very top layer of the yellow peel is slightly erased. One or two teaspoons of zest will be enough.
We observe the main rule
When all the ingredients for making mulled wine are collected, you can start cooking it. The most important rule - never bring this drink to a boil - extends to its non-alcoholic version. The cooking temperature is about 70 degrees.
A glass of water is poured into a cooked, clean, unenameled metal pan. It is good if it is spring or filtered water, in which there are no extraneous odors - bleach, iodine, iron.
Spices are poured into heated water. Now you need to wait a bit for the spices to give their rich contents to the future drink. You can always taste the necessary amount of spices to taste, enhancing the aroma.
When to add fruit
After the mouth-watering smell spreads throughout the kitchen, you can add juice to the pan, and then fruits with lemon zest.
Then you need to make sure that the mixture does not boil, but at the same time is hot enough. If all of a sudden this happened, you need to immediately remove the container from the fire, reduce it and put the mulled wine back to heat. Cook it should be a quarter of an hour.
During this time, the fruit will have time to give the drink its taste and aroma, but at the same time they will not boil.
Then you can try mulled wine to understand whether you need to add a little sweetness to him, pouring literally one or two teaspoons of sugar. If the taste is quite satisfactory, then you can turn off the fire under the pan, cover it with a lid and let the mulled wine brew for another fifteen minutes.
How to serve a soft drink
Mulled wine is poured into a decanter or glasses through a strainer so that the lemon zest and spices do not interfere with drinking it. On top of a glass, you can put a slice of orange and apple, add a stick of cinnamon for beauty.
Christmas non-alcoholic spicy mulled wine
This drink will certainly appeal to children. The recipe for mulled wine ingredients is as follows:
- A liter of grape juice (red).
- Half a liter of cranberry juice.
- Two glasses of water.
- A mixture of spices.
- Two oranges.
- Two tangerines.
- A quarter cup of cranberries.
Spice set
Spices can be added to your taste, but it is better if it is three sticks of cinnamon with an a star anise star, a little raisins, three boxes of cardamom, three peas of black pepper, ten sticks of cloves and a slice of dried ginger. You can and fresh, only half the size.
Technology for making Christmas mulled wine
We put a metal pan on a small fire, pour grape juice. Then add cranberry juice and water.
Add spices and increase the heat to medium. Slowly warm up the future mulled wine. During this time, prepare the fruit. We cut one orange and one mandarin into four parts to squeeze the juice. We cut the second orange into pieces together with the peel to add them to the finished mulled wine.
Squeeze the juice from the quarters of orange and mandarin into the pan with our hands. Warm up a little more, not bringing to a boil. Then you need to remove the drink from the fire and leave to infuse for two to six hours. You can leave it for the night.
Then put it on the fire again, add slices of citrus fruits and cranberries. Warm well - and you can serve.
Fragrant, spicy, warming Christmas mulled wine is ready - it will add an excellent festive mood, it will become a real highlight of a magical evening.