Ian Osmond's Wassail Bowl Recipe
Dec. 23rd, 2006 08:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xiphiasI have no clue how this one will go over, but I think it's starting to taste pretty good. Then again, I've been tasting it for a while now. . .
Please note: if you are offended by cooking with and adulterating good beer, you don't want to read this. But. . . the recipes I found seemed like they NEEDED good beer. In any case, I did hold a couple bottles back for just plain drinking. 'Cause they're good.
Put 4 bottles each of Ipswich Ale Oatmeal Stout and Ipswich Ale Nut Brown Ale into a 2 gallon pot. Start a relatively low fire under the pot -- you want it warm enough to be, y'know, warm, and to be able to combine ingredients, but not so warm as to boil off ALL the alcohol. Some is fine -- the idea is to get something that people are going to want to drink down, so having a certain amount of the alcohol burn off isn't a bad thing.
Zest one lemon into the pot. Peel the lemon and throw it in. Slice another lemon into rounds and throw that in.
Throw a small handful of cloves and, oh, about four cinnamon sticks in. Grate a nutmeg in.
Core and slice three largish apples into wedges, and throw those in.
Go through your liquor cabinet and find all the bottles of port, sherry, Marsala, Madeira, sack, and other such sweet, fortified wines. Pull out all the ones that have, like, only a couple inches in them and aren't so wonderful that you HAVE to save them for just plain drinking. Pour the dribs and drabs of sweet, fortified wine into the mix. Look at the over half-a-bottle of sherry that you don't really like because it's too sweet. Pour that in, too, even though it's not a drib or a drab.
Stir and taste.
Add a bunch of sugar, and continue adding sugar until Lis says it tastes pretty good.
Cover and wait for tomorrow night when we'll try feeding it to family.
Please note: if you are offended by cooking with and adulterating good beer, you don't want to read this. But. . . the recipes I found seemed like they NEEDED good beer. In any case, I did hold a couple bottles back for just plain drinking. 'Cause they're good.
Put 4 bottles each of Ipswich Ale Oatmeal Stout and Ipswich Ale Nut Brown Ale into a 2 gallon pot. Start a relatively low fire under the pot -- you want it warm enough to be, y'know, warm, and to be able to combine ingredients, but not so warm as to boil off ALL the alcohol. Some is fine -- the idea is to get something that people are going to want to drink down, so having a certain amount of the alcohol burn off isn't a bad thing.
Zest one lemon into the pot. Peel the lemon and throw it in. Slice another lemon into rounds and throw that in.
Throw a small handful of cloves and, oh, about four cinnamon sticks in. Grate a nutmeg in.
Core and slice three largish apples into wedges, and throw those in.
Go through your liquor cabinet and find all the bottles of port, sherry, Marsala, Madeira, sack, and other such sweet, fortified wines. Pull out all the ones that have, like, only a couple inches in them and aren't so wonderful that you HAVE to save them for just plain drinking. Pour the dribs and drabs of sweet, fortified wine into the mix. Look at the over half-a-bottle of sherry that you don't really like because it's too sweet. Pour that in, too, even though it's not a drib or a drab.
Stir and taste.
Add a bunch of sugar, and continue adding sugar until Lis says it tastes pretty good.
Cover and wait for tomorrow night when we'll try feeding it to family.
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-24 03:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-24 04:18 am (UTC)Actually, a bourbon with a beer chaser would work, too -- and I think I'd use the Miller High Life for that. You could do it in one of three ways: bourbon, beer back, shot in beer, and true boilermaker, also known as a depth charge.
Bourbon, beer back, would be to have the bourbon in a shot glass or a rocks glass, neat, slam it, and then drink the beer as a chaser. Shot in beer is to pour the beer, then pour the bourbon IN it. I don't get the appeal, myself, but some people like it.
Proper boilermaker, bartenders HATE it, because it makes a mess and ruins glassware. Take a shot glass -- not a rocks glass, but the genuine article -- and a heavy-bottomed glass beer mug. Pour the beer, then drop the whole shot glass into the beer. The beer will foam up prodigiously, and you have to drink the whole thing before it spills.
Dropping a heavy-bottomed shot glass into a glass stein has been known to crack the bottom of the stein right out, or chip the shot glass.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-24 02:37 pm (UTC)Yup, and then there's the crack on the nose as the shot glass comes down. College was so cool!
I used to work at a small bar on the outskirts of Grand Rapids, MI. Was mostly shots and beer there, with a boilermaker being a 'fancy' drink. Place had been opened the day after prohibition and the grandson still ran the place. Same basic furniture; walls never cleaned, floor only mopped once a year; it was perfect!
I like Guinness and whiskey, though all I have is bourbon right now. Need to find a proper liquor store out here for some Bushmills; two shots of whiskey, two cans of Guinness and I will be smiling, ear-to-ear, all night long.
Need to pick up some margarita mix and some rum. Wife has a bottle of pomegranate licqueur that will go ok in a margarita. As long as there's snow outside, I think it's time for boat drinks. Just have to make sure we don't shoot any holes in the freezer.
Re: hey!
Date: 2006-12-24 04:13 am (UTC)Re: hey!
Date: 2006-12-24 04:19 am (UTC)booze question...
Date: 2006-12-24 04:44 am (UTC)What's a good drink for me to ask for, the next time I'm at an open bar? I don't drink much, so I'm probably only going to get one alcoholic drink at an open bar. I like chocolate, and fruity stuff... but (and this is why I'm asking for your bartender hat), I don't want to be asking for something which is going to be a real pain in the neck for the bartender, requiring him/her to take 15 minutes to prepare and find lots of little umbrellas. Any thoughts?
(At the $COMPANY holiday party, I ended up getting some bailey's irish cream on the rocks, which was OK, but not so fabulous that I feel like I've found the solution.)
Re: booze question...
Date: 2006-12-24 05:02 am (UTC)You know what I would do?
I'd go to the bartender and say, "Please make me a girly drink of some sort."
The bartender will know what he or she has, and will be able to figure out what he or she can do.