Posted by Trott

Humu and I put out the APB on Facebook and Twitter to try to get some people to come over last-minute to drink some wassail on a Sunday night. This was not nearly as successful as our last-minute effort to get people to come over to drink mulled wine.

The next day, everyone asked me how the wassail was. It quickly became clear that they all thought it was somewhat like a mulled beer. It appears that everyone read Wikipedia to find out what wassail was, and then decided they weren't interested in mulled beer. (Wikipedia does mention that modern versions tend to be closer to cider than beer, but the emphasis does seem to be on something ale-like.)

The wassail recipe in The Joy of Cooking is more like a cross between mulled cream sherry, egg nog, and baked apples. It is only the third of the many punches in The Joy of Cooking that I am likely to make again. (The other two were the first egg nog and glögg.) It was very tasty and it's too bad others weren't around to enjoy it. Because it contained uncooked eggs, I did not feel comfortable saving the leftovers for a later date. A large amount of wassail was sadly discarded.

Photo by Humuhumu

Labels: joy of cooking