{"id":8074,"date":"2020-10-04T02:40:04","date_gmt":"2020-10-04T09:40:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nourishedkitchen.com\/?p=8074"},"modified":"2020-11-15T08:57:26","modified_gmt":"2020-11-15T16:57:26","slug":"traditional-wassail-recipe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nourishedkitchen.com\/traditional-wassail-recipe\/","title":{"rendered":"Wassail"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Delightfully boozy and infused with aromatic spices, this wassail recipe<\/strong> is both delicious and easy to make. Notes of ginger, cinnamon, and cloves blend with sweet apples for a simple and warming wintertime drink.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\"Mug<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What is it?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Wassail is a sweet, spiced alcoholic drink made from hot apple cider. The earliest recipes included a mix of hot mead or ale, spices, and crab apples. Later recipes include citrus, apple juice, and hard alcohol such as brandy or rum. The drink is associated with winter holidays and festivals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what's the history?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Alongside sugar plums<\/a> and gingerbread<\/a>, there are few recipes so intrinsically linked to Christmas as wassail. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The word wassail first started as a greeting and didn't refer to the drink at all.  \"Waes hael<\/em>,\" revelers might say, holding up a mug of mulled cider<\/a>.  Eventually, as things go, wassail referred less often to the greeting and more often to the drink. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Owing to its warming nature, wassail was traditionally served in wintertime, specifically during the yuletide season that spans from Christmas Eve through Twelfth Night. Wassailers traveled from house to house, singing carols and demanding drinks. Others ventured out of the home with a trimmed bowl of spiced cider, offering it in the street for a few pennies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In deeper nature-based traditions, revelers offered wassail as an ancient honor to the trees.  In wintertime, celebrants prepared traditional wassail - soaking pieces of bread, cake, or toast in it. Then, they visited apple orchards to bless the trees in hopes of a good harvest for the next year.  They'd then bury the pieces of soaked bread at the trees' roots or hang them among the branches to appease the tree spirits and feed them well until the next harvest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tips for making good wassail<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To make wassail, you simply warm apple cider together with aromatic spices, and then you strain and serve. But there are a few tricks to keep in mind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n