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Wine, Mulled
Any kind of wine may be mulled, though port and claret are the most suitable, and are usually preferred for the purpose. Claret needs to be liberally sweetened. The quantity of spice used must be regulated by individual taste, which varies considerably upon questions of this sort. Grated nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and mace are the spices generally used for mulled wine. To mull the wine take equal quantities of wine and water (or, if preferred, double the quantity of wine to that of water). Boil the spice in the water till the latter is sufficiently flavoured; strain the liquor, sweeten it, mix the wine with it, and bring it again to the point of boiling. Serve very hot, with wine biscuits or thin strips of dry toast. When equal quantities only of wine and water are used, an egg may be whisked in a bowl, the boiling liquor stirred gradually into it, and then served. The saucepan in which wine is mulled should be delicately clean, and used for no other purpose.
A method rather than a fixed formula: the book gives proportions and leaves spice and sugar to the drinker. A few points make it work reliably.
- Never actually boil the wineThe instruction to "bring it again to the point of boiling" means just that — to the edge, not through it. Held at a boil, wine loses its aromatics and the tannin in claret turns harsh and metallic. Aim for 160–175F, when steam rises but no bubbles break the surface.
- ProportionsEqual parts wine and water gives a mild drink — around 5–6 percent alcohol with a table claret, though noticeably stronger with port; two parts wine to one of water is closer to what most people now expect from mulled wine. A standard 750 ml bottle with 375 ml water yields about six cups.
- Spice quantitiesFor one bottle of wine, start with a 3-inch cinnamon stick, 6 cloves, 2 blades of mace and a quarter of a nutmeg, grated as the book directs. Use whole spice for the rest — ground cinnamon will not strain out and leaves the drink gritty.
- Why the spice goes in the water firstSimmering the spice in the water alone for 10 minutes extracts it properly without cooking the wine, which is the whole point of the two-stage method. Strain through a fine sieve or muslin before the wine goes in.
- SweeteningClaret here means dry red Bordeaux, and it needs real sugar: 3 to 5 tablespoons per bottle. Port is already sweet and usually needs little or none. Sweeten the spiced water while it is still hot so the sugar dissolves.
- The egg versionWhisking the hot liquor into an egg makes a frothy posset, but tempering does not guarantee the egg reaches a safe temperature, and if the mixture is too hot it curdles into threads. Use a pasteurised egg, pour slowly while whisking hard, and serve immediately.
- The dedicated saucepanSound advice for a period of tinned copper and iron pans, which reacted with wine acid and held old flavours. Stainless steel or enamel makes the caution unnecessary, though aluminium is still best avoided with anything this acidic.
- Serving"Wine biscuits" were plain, hard, dry biscuits, sometimes lightly sweetened — a modern equivalent is any dry unflavoured biscuit or a shortbread finger; the book also offers thin strips of dry toast. Serve in warmed glasses or cups; cold glass drops the temperature immediately.
Mulling — heating wine with spice and sugar — runs back through medieval spiced wines such as hippocras and piment, in which the sweetening and the costly imported spice were as much of the point as the wine. By the time Cassell's was compiled in late Victorian England, the drink had settled into a domestic winter fixture, offered to travellers arriving cold and to the sick: a cook was expected to mull whatever was in the house. The dilution with water, which now looks odd, is best read as the book's own preference for economy and mildness, and it also stretched a bottle of port across a household. The instruction to keep one pan solely for the purpose is a reminder of how strongly tinned and iron cookware carried flavour from one dish to the next.