Glögg

Swedish hot mulled wine

Have you had friends over around the holidays and had them ask for something hot and alcoholic? Sure, a hot toddy, but it's just hot watered down booze with lemon. Boooorrrring! You gotta make a bunch of this mulled wine to keep on hand. It's a bit of work, but it's totally worth it. You have to commit to making enough to last for the winter, but that's convenient, because it calls for a bottle of red wine and a bottle of port which yields 1.5 liters. That makes it easy to rebottle and keep in the fridge for a few weeks or so.

You may have had some form of mulled wine before - in German it's called glühwein (glow wine) but in Swedish it's called glögg and basically is pronounced like "glug" as in glug glug glug - the sound you will make when drinking it. You may have also seen a bottle with the same name at Ikea, but theirs is non-alcoholic so don't waste your time.

The basic recipe for all mulled wines is the same: wine, sugar, a bit of brandy and cinnamon sticks with cloves and other spices. However, I naturally had to find a more complicated recipe and then make it even more complicated. Not by much this time though. Here's the ingredient list and step by step method:

Glögg

Simple syrup:

• ½ cup sugar

• ½ cup water

You know how to do this. Put sugar and water in a pot big enough to hold the 2 bottles of wine. Heat slowly on low heat while stirring to dissolve.

Booze:

• 1 750ml bottle of cheap dry red wine*

• 1 750ml bottle of decent tawny port wine*

• 1 cup brandy

• ½ cup amaretto

* I used 1½ bottles of red wine and only ½ bottle of port so my version is maybe not quite as sweet.

Add all the booze to the pot and heat it slowly just enough to cause it steam a lot without actually boiling. That takes a while to get it right, which will give you time to make the spice bag.

Spice bag

• 1 cup raisins

• 1 cup blanched almonds (no skin)

• zest/peel from one orange

• 2 slices peeled ginger

• 10 crushed whole cardamom pods

• 2 cinnamon sticks

• 8 whole cloves

Put all this stuff into a cheesecloth bag or similar mesh bag. Don't be stupid - you don't want to have to strain this later. Tie it and hang it into your pot so it's completely submerged. Once you have the liquid steaming nicely without boiling set a timer for a good 45 minutes. I'm sure you could go for only half an hour or an hour if you want to really bring out the spice. Give it a taste as you go. One little secret trick that I came up with is to add about a half teaspoon of vanilla extract - it just rounds out the spices a bit. Or at least I think it does. Whatever, it can't hurt.

Let it cool to room temperature before attempting to rebottle with a funnel into your empty wine bottles. The heat may cause them to break and that's a serious mess and waste of all your hard work, so just wait it out. If you were smart and bought the cheap stuff, you can reuse the screw tops rather than a cork to seal the bottle. And in the spirit of reusing things, you can also partially peel the labels off and make your own classy labels like me:

The wine should keep for at least a few weeks in the fridge. When you want to heat some up, don't be lame and use the microwave - heat it up slowly in a pot and then pour into a teapot or directly into mugs. You can garnish with a cinnamon stick but it's actually a bit much. Just leave it be.

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