Mulled Cider
To one quart cider take three eggs. Beat them light and add sugar according to the acidity of the cider. When light, pour the boiling cider on, stirring briskly. Put back on the fire and stir till it fairly boils. Then pour off.--Mr. R. H. M.
A hot egg-thickened cider drink, closer to eggnog or a Dutch advocaat than to the spiced cider of modern autumn. The whole thing hangs on temperature control: eggs and boiling cider are a curdling accident waiting to happen.
- The hinge: temper, then barely boilPouring boiling cider onto beaten eggs in a thin stream while whisking hard is the tempering step, and it is why the original says "stirring briskly." The instruction to return it to the fire until it "fairly boils" is riskier than it sounds; take it just to the point where it thickens and steams heavily, stirring constantly, and pull it off. Held at a true rolling boil it will scramble.
- What cider meantIn this period "cider" commonly meant the fermented, mildly alcoholic drink, though unfermented sweet cider was also in use; either could vary enough in sharpness to explain why the recipe leaves sugar to be judged "according to the acidity." Hard cider is the likelier intent; sweet cider or modern apple juice will need much less sugar, if any.
- Sugar is unmeasured on purposeStart with about 2 tablespoons per quart, taste the sweetened egg mixture before the cider goes in, and adjust. Sharp farmhouse cider may want twice that.
- "Pour off"This means decant it out of the pan straight away, into a pitcher or mugs, so residual heat does not keep cooking the eggs. Pouring through a fine sieve catches any stray threads of set egg and is worth doing.
- YieldA quart with three eggs serves four to six as a hot cup, less if you are pouring into anything larger than a teacup.
- Whole eggs, not separated"Beat them light" here means whole eggs whisked until frothy and pale. Some period versions beat the whites separately and float them on top; this one does not, and the result is a smooth, slightly foamy drink rather than a capped one.
- Spices, if you want themThe recipe is bare. A stick of cinnamon, a few cloves and a blade of mace warmed in the cider before it boils is consistent with period practice; strain them out before the cider meets the eggs.
Mulling -- heating a drink with sugar and often spices -- was an English tavern and fireside habit carried into the colonies, and in cider country cider stood in for the mulled wine and ale of the mother country. Virginia orchards produced cider in quantity as an ordinary household drink. The egg is what marks this as an old-fashioned version: enriching a hot drink with beaten egg links it to a whole family of dishes -- caudle, posset, egg-nog, the Dutch advocaat -- in which egg served as both thickener and nourishment. Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1879) was assembled by Marion Cabell Tyree from contributions by Virginia housekeepers and others, which is why this one arrives credited only to a set of initials; the book reads as a collection of family habits rather than a tested manual.