Hypocras - mulled wine

Bruidstranen

500 grams / 2lb 2oz. Sugar
2 lemons
2 tsp cinnamon
4 cloves
2 pieces of mace
6 white pepper corns
1 tsp coriander
5 oranges
1 tart apple such as ‘goudrenet’
½ liter / 2 cups / 1 pint milk
2 litres / 2 qts red or white wine

Splice the loves lengthwise and crush the pepper corns. Squeeze the two lemons and keep the juice. Dice the unpeeled, non-cored apple. Peel the oranges and keep the peels.

Mix juice, spices, peels, milk and wine in a large container and set aside to steep for at least a day, preferably longer.

Soak a large piece of cheesecloth or a good quality tea towel to use as a sieve. Put that (perhaps supported by a metal sieve or clander) over a wide-mouthed container or bottle able eventually to hold 2.5 litres (½ gallon), or use smaller containers and pour the contents through a funnel into a larger one.

The recipe in one form or another dates back to ancient Greek times. Originally, it also called for the inclusion of specks of gold or silver leaf, to mimic the sparkle of tears.

In Colonial America, the age-old drink became known as ‘mulled wine’.