Here We Come A-Wassailing!

Hey, everyone! Sorry for my absence last week. If there's one thing that can get me down, it's a sinus headache, and I woke up with one last week. Migraine might be more correct. My sinus headaches are debilitating, thus the lack of post. Anyhoo, enough moaning and groaning, let's talk about food!


I'm not really sure why, but it seems like trying new booze recipes at Christmas is becoming a tradition for me. Last year I made hot toddies for the first time, but I used killer bee honey I bought at Renn Faire that year in it. When I did that, they became Killer Toddies! They were very strong, but very good. This year I decided to make Alton Brown's traditional wassail. I assume it's traditional anyway; Alton said it was.

Wassail

6 small Fuji apples, cored
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup water
72 oz ale
750 ml Madeira
10 whole cloves
10 whole allspice berries
1 cinnamon stick, 2" long
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground nutmeg
6 lg eggs, separated

Preheat the oven to 350° F.

Put the apples into an 8 by 8-inch glass baking dish. Spoon the brown sugar into the center of each apple, dividing the sugar evenly among them. Pour the water into the bottom of the dish and bake until tender, about 45 minutes.

Pour the ale and Madeira into a large slow cooker. Put the cloves, allspice, and cinnamon into a small muslin bag or cheesecloth, tied with kitchen twine, and add to the slow cooker along with the ginger and nutmeg. Set the slow cooker to medium heat and bring the mixture to at least 120° F. Do not boil.

Add the egg whites to a medium bowl and using a hand mixer, beat until stiff peaks form. Put the egg yolks into a separate bowl and beat until lightened in color and frothy, approximately 2 minutes. Add the egg whites to the yolks and using the hand mixer, beat, just until combined. Slowly add 4 to 6 ounces of the alcohol mixture from the slow cooker to the egg mixture, beating with the hand mixer on low speed. Return this mixture to the slow cooker and whisk to combine.

Add the apples and the liquid from the baking dish to the wassail and stir to combine. Ladle into cups and serve.

This recipe was so much fun for so many reasons...

The software list, as Alton Brown would say, for this recipe is extensive.

Dun dun dun! Whodunnit? Me! Okay, so I thought this was an apple corer and ended up bending it because it's actually a vegetable peeler. What can I say? I wasn't in my kitchen. My dad fixed the peeler and gave me the actual apple corer, which worked so much better!

I have to pat myself on the back for this one; I'm kind of a genius. The brown sugar had to go into the cored apples, but, let's face it, I'm not all that coordinated. The funnel worked perfectly, however, and I thought of it all on my own! I was also really impressed because I remembered it from my childhood. Ah, nostalgia. :-)

Here's everything in the pot. My mum was kind enough to let me use her fancy, new crock pot that Heather gave her. My mum also had this really cool meat fork/thermometer that I was able to use to keep an eye on the temperature. What won't those mad scientists think of next?

Here's a fun first for me: Egg foam. I never did one of these before the wassail. Mine turned out so well too! The third picture here is not the final product. It's kind of fascinating watching clear, gooey egg whites transform into light, fluffy foam. Another tool my mum let me borrow was the hand mixer that she received as a gift for her wedding. That thing is older than I am and it is a trooper! Let that be a lesson in good appliance care.

After the egg foam was done, I mixed up the yolks and gently combined them with the foam. I wasn't sure it would all fit in the pot, but it made it...just barely. Mixing the eggs in with the rest of the drink sort of brought the level down too.

Finally there were the apples. I tried putting them in before transport, but I quickly realized that was just not going to work, so the apples traveled separately. Once we got to Heather's house, though, they went into the wassail very nicely.

The wassail turned out so well, though I like my alcoholic beverages a bit sweeter. Don't get me wrong, it was sweet, but I have a very needy sweet tooth. It was also very strong and made about a million gallons of the stuff, so there were lots of leftovers. After all, people have to drive home, and we all know how to enjoy responsibly. Sadly, I remembered to bring everything home from VA except this. I haven't asked if my parents finished it off or not because I hate the idea that any of it might have been wasted because I was absent-minded. We'll see if the tradition continues next year. I still haven't made mulled wine, after all.

As a teaser for next week, I will also tell you that wine played a part in that recipe too, and it is divine! You'll just have to wait, though. :-)