Another Wassail

WASSAIL BOWL – this recipe from Valmai Goodyear

 

5 pints old ale

3 large dry sherries

3 bottles apple juice

 

• 2 oranges, with the peel removed in a single strip and the juice squeezed out
• 5 thin slices fresh root ginger
• 3 x 10 cm sticks of cinnamon
• 1 whole nutmeg, freshly grated
• 4 baby clementines cut in half, with 8-10 whole cloves stuck in the peel of each one
• 3 heaped tablespoons of soft dark brown sugar

 

I put all the flavouring ingredients in a plastic lidded box in the morning so that the sugar and orange juice started to draw the flavour out of the fresh spices and the juice out of the clementines. Our noble landlord added them to the old ale, sherry and apple juice in a sealed heater, something like a slow cooker, and when we served them the wassail was piping hot but the flavours were still fresh and not stewed.