Glühwein

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy saucepan, 2 litre capacity
• •Fine sieve
• •Ladle
• •Thick-walled mugs

Instructions

1. 1

   Peel the citrus

   Peel the orange and lemon in wide strips, taking as little white pith as you can. The coloured zest gives oil and fragrance; the white pith gives bitterness, and hot wine pulls that bitterness out quickly. Juice the orange and keep it ready.

2. 2

   Warm the wine

   Pour the wine into a heavy saucepan with the orange juice, citrus peel, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, star anise if using, sugar, and honey if using. Set it over low heat and bring it only until the surface trembles at the edge, never to a boil. Boiling drives off the alcohol and cooks the wine flat, so the whole drink depends on holding the heat back.

   If you have a thermometer, keep the wine around 70C to 75C. If you don't, watch the edge of the pot: small movement is enough, bubbles breaking hard are too much.
3. 3

   Steep the spices

   Cover the pot and let the wine sit on the lowest heat for 20 to 30 minutes, still below a simmer. Whole spices need time to scent the wine, and they stay clean where ground spice turns the drink gritty. Taste after 20 minutes; if the clove is getting loud, lift the spices out.

4. 4

   Taste and adjust

   Strain out the peel and spices, then taste the Glühwein before it goes to the mugs. Hot wine hides sugar at first, so add sweetness in small spoonfuls and stop while it still tastes like wine. If you're adding rum or cherry brandy, stir it in off the heat so it keeps its lift instead of boiling away.

5. 5

   Serve warm

   Ladle into thick-walled mugs and add a fresh orange slice only if you want one. Don't leave the pot cooking all evening; hold it on the lowest heat or in an insulated jug, because even gentle wine gets tired if it sits too long. Schön ist, was schmeckt.

Chef Tips

• •Use a wine you would drink, not a grand bottle and not the cheapest sour thing on the shelf. Heat makes bad wine louder.
• •Whole spices only. Ground cinnamon and clove make a muddy cup and keep giving flavour after the point where you wanted them to stop.
• •For white Glühwein, use Riesling or Silvaner, reduce the sugar a little, and keep the lemon peel light. White wine shows bitterness faster than red.
• •Leftover Glühwein can be chilled, strained, and warmed once more the next day. Don't reboil it, and don't keep citrus peel in it overnight or it turns hard and bitter.

Advance Preparation

• •The spice base can sit in the wine off the heat for up to 2 hours before serving; strain it once the flavour is strong enough, then warm gently when guests arrive.
• •For a larger Advent table, double the recipe in a heavy pot and hold it below a simmer. A hard boil ruins twice as much wine, not one bit less.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 145g)