mulled crap
can somebody point me towards a direction for mulled wine that's not absolutely awful? i made it for our holiday part last christmas, and this is vaguely how the entire process went:
two hours before party: catherine gets excited, dumps shitload of wine, cinnamon, and various other ingredients in big old vat on stove to simmer.
directly before party: catherine tastes her sure-to-be-marvelous creation.
catherine: "holy crap."
pukes.
at party: catherine reluctantly leaves mulled wine as imbibing option for partygoers because, hey, alcohol. general reaction: much shying away from stove with askance looks at catherine. an hour into the party, jeff nye the alcohol guy tinkers with the wine, doing some chemical engineer i don't know what sort of stuff, which also includes pouring, literally, an entire pound of pure sugar into the mix. mulled wine is magically good. jeff receives much patting on the back and is carried around the party victorious on mulled wine drinkers shoulders. catherine sulks in corner, mutters incomprehensibly about the cinnamon.
don't worry, i'm not going to reattempt the disastrous mulled wine for this year's party. but i have heard, on occasion, that it can be a good thing, if done properly. so, show me how!
Comments
Well, Michael Chiarello of the Food Network has this to say:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_29391,00.html
2 cinnamon sticks
1 handful juniper berries
1 handful allspice berries
1 whole nutmeg
Magnum of zinfandel (or 2 standard bottles of zinfandel)
1 cup sugar in the raw
Peel from 1/2 an orange
Combine cinnamon, juniper, allspice and nutmeg in a cheesecloth bag and drop in a saucepan with a quarter of the wine. Add the sugar and orange peel. Simmer to blend flavors, about 6 minutes. Once heated, add the remaining wine and return to a simmer. Remove spice bag and orange peel and serve.
No reason not to use the recipe above. On winging it, I've had good results with (1) decent wine. Not great, but something you'd drink normally (2) cut up oranges, apples, and pears. They look awful after they've been cooking for a bit, but they make it taste good (3) cinnamon sticks, not powder, and (3) spike it with some brandy, because as you heat it, you're boiling off the alcohol.
the reason i'm so fearful is that i think i was using a recipe from the food network, or its equivalent, and it still turned out crap - i'm more interested in hearing people's personal recipes that've worked for them.
Also, Catherine has a unfortunate history with Michael Chiarello.
You can fortify it with brandy or cointreau, too.
I say, go for hot spiced cider with brandy, whiskey or rum.
we've got a new plan for this year: european-style hot chocolate with a bottle of ice 101 (101 proof mint schnapps) for adulteration.
I just dug up some recipes for making some old-fashioned hot chocolate from scratch and now I'm fucking hungry. I may have to make some for the holidays.
I think you all overcomplicated the situation. I made mulled wine for Thanksgiving and everyone loved it. Just go to Harris Teeter and buy a packet of New England Mulling Spices. (I had to wait about 15 min. for the manager to find it, but eventually he did.) I added old wine that had been sitting in the fridge open for a month (because I wasn't going to drink it otherwise), the packet spices in a tea infuser, apple cider, honey, and sherry. Packages are great!
bring on the ICE 101 hot chocolate!! I miss that stuff....
Skip the cooking and just make sangria.
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