Radio Free Deimos E61 – Do They Know It’s Christmas

Traditional Wassail 10 very small apples 1 large orange stuck with whole cloves 10 teaspoons brown sugar 2 bottles dry red wine or dry sherry 1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg 1 teaspoon ground ginger 3 cloves (or more) 3 allspice berries (or more) 4-5 black peppercorns (optional) 2 or 3 cinnamon sticks 2 cups extra fine sugar (pulverize in blender) (Optional, pretty sweet already!) 12 to 20 pints of cider according to the number of guests 1 cup (or as much as you like) brandy Core the apples and fill each with a teaspoon of brown sugar. Place in a baking pan and cover the bottom with 1/8-inch of water. Insert cloves into the orange about 1/2″ apart. Bake the orange with the apples in a 350° oven. After about 30 minutes, remove from oven–save the water!–and puncture the orange in several places with a fork or an ice pick Combine the red wine, cider, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, allspice berries, cinnamon, sugar, and juice from the baked fruit, in a large, heavy saucepan and heat slowly without letting the mixture come to a boil. Simmer on very low heat for 15 minutes. Strain the wine mixture and add the brandy. (Note: I typically just throw everything into a huge crock pot or steel cauldron on a burner, and ignore the straining step and metal punch bowl, but it depends on how festive you want to be.) Pour into a metal punch bowl, float the apples and orange on top and ladle hot into punch cups. Makes enough for 15-20 people.

For basically being hot apple juice, there’s a huge amount of tradition associated with wassail. Go figure!