Cloves Redux

Day 19 of Spicemas

Today’s spice is… cloves. Again. Whole cloves, while the last packet was the ground up cloves all powdery and ready for baking. I have to say I’m disappointed in the selection of cloves twice in the Advent calendar. There are so very many other spices they could have chosen!

Ah, well. I was dealt a hand, and I’ll play it. Besides, it gave me a wonderful excuse to make something my husband loves. The house smells amazing, and come to think of it, having done a pomander with the last clove packet, that’s a theme. Cloves just smell lovely.

You start with a bottle of wine. The husband swears the best mulled wine he ever had started with a bottle of Mogen David Blackberry Wine. Undrinkable from the bottle, he told me, but once it’s heated gently with spices and citrus it’s wonderful. Of course, he tempered that reminiscently, this was forty or more years ago…

Photo taken on the shores of Lake Wichita in Dec 2023 by myself. The dead roses in the Mad Dog bottle were just such a sad statement of angst on the mudflats.

I did not look for MD Blackberry. I did have a bottle of inexpensive (but not plonk) sweet red. Rather than trying to monitor this on the stovetop, because you really mustn’t let this boil at all, I opted to go with the slow cooker setting at medium (194F) for a couple of hours. Above and beyond cooking off the alcohol through boiling, you’ll change the flavors, so it’s just better to keep it below that point.

Mulled Wine

This isn’t really a recipe. It’s more guidelines… you can switch out many elements without ruining it, and it’s fun to make it a little different every time.

• 750mL bottle of wine - a sweet red is best (Merlot and Syrah are my choices if not using a blend)

• 2-3 cinnamon sticks

• 2-3 star anise (whole)

• 8-10 whole cloves

• 5-8 green cardamom pods

• 1 orange or lemon, peeled and sliced

If you use a dry red, you might add some honey to this.

I’m still smitten with being able to grow my own citrus. My husband is encouraging me to consider a greenhouse so he can get me to grow him more lemons and satsumas.

I used one of my homegrown Meyer Lemons, which are really sweet for lemons, so we opted not to add sweetener to balance that out. You will want to peel the citrus (I save the zest for other recipes) with a sharp knife to remove the peel and pith, or it will make the drink bitter.

Heat all this gently for at least an hour, then strain and serve hot.

It is a winter classic for a reason. If you have to be out and about this will warm you from your nose to your toes. He spent enough time in Germany to have fond memories of gluhwein. I like mulled cider, which isn’t easy to find here in Texas (the cider, that is, and no, apple juice isn’t remotely the same thing), and this has many of the elements I love there. I even seem to recall making what my parents called Russian Tea, which was Tang (?) mulled with spices. It’s been a long time. Mom might not even remember.

My husband wants you all to know this is an unqualified success. I agree. It’s richly scented, tart without being sour, and unctuous to the mouth-feel. We’ll have to do this again later in winter - perhaps to celebrate a snowfall should we have one!