Tag Archives: Westeros

Potted Hare

“Littlefinger turned away. ‘Boy, are you fond of potted hare?’ he asked Podrick Payne.” (II:199)

Elizabethan Potted Hare

Our Thoughts:

This quirky dish, still found in the UK, might be one of our new weekend staples.  The Elizabethan version is quite basic in flavor as it contains only a few spices, but this allows the taste of the rabbit to come through.  Ours didn’t hold together too well, and so ended up more a confit than a pate, which was still very good.  

The modern potted hare is fantastic. The thyme gives the rabbit a wonderful savory flavor, and the reduced fat adds a creamy texture that is awesome spread over crackers. The rabbit sets very well, and should be molded into any shape for a fun, interesting presentation.

Bottom line?  Well worth the effort, and tasty.  We served ours as part of a ploughman’s platter, with pickle, chutney, apples, cheese, and hunky bread.


 

 

Elizabethan Potted Hare

A Hare Hashed.

Cut it out in quarters, chine it, and lay it in Clarret, mixed with three parts of water, and parboyl it, then slice the flesh in thin pieces, and lay it on your stew pan, let this be off the Body, but the legs wings, and head whole, almost cover it with some of the liquor it was boyled in, add some Butter, sliced Nutmeg, the juce of Lemon, and a little beaten Ginger, serve it upon sippets, Garnish it with Lemon, and sliced Onion.

–The Whole Duty of a Woman: Or a Guide to the Female Sex, 1696

Our changes: *NOTE* This dish is best prepared a day in advance.  Potted meats are basically stewed meat and herb that are ground after stewing and packed into a terrine. So we’ve used the basic recipe for hashed hare and finished it as you would a potted recipe.  Also, can we please just take a moment to appreciate the title of the original source?  Hilarious.

Ingredients:

  • 1 rabbit, cleaned
  • 1 part red wine
  • 3 parts water
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/2 lemon, juiced
  • stick butter, clarified

Cut the rabbit into manageable pieces and place into a large pot.   Add one part red wine to three parts water until the meat is covered and simmer until flesh is falling off the bone (several hours).

Strain off liquid and pull all meat from the bone, discarding the bones (what broth is left can be made into a soup — waste not!). Grind down by hand or in a food processor, adding spices, and lemon juice. Pack loosely into a terrine, add a bit of the broth, then pour over with clarified butter to completely seal and coat. Cover with clingfilm and refrigerate for at least one day before eating.

Modern Potted Hare

Ingredients:

  • 1 rabbit, cleaned
  • 1/3 lb. smoked slab bacon, cut into lardons
  • 1 pigs trotter, washed
  • 1 onion, peeled and quatered
  • 2 stalks celery, chopped
  • 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
  • 5 thyme sprigs, 1 Tablespoon thyme
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 glass white wine
  • 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
  • Salt and pepper
  • Olive oil
Preheat oven to 350F.
Cut rabbit into manageable pieces. Warm a glug of olive oil in a large sauce pan on medium-high heat, and brown rabbit pieces on all sides. Remove rabbit and brown the bacon. Put meat in a casserole dish with the trotter, veg, thyme, bay leaves, wine, and enough water to cover. Bring to a simmer and cover, transfer to the oven and cook for about two hours.
Place sieve over a saucepan, and strain off the liquid. Boil and reduce to a little over one cup. While boiling, pull rabbit meat off the bones and shred into a bowl. Finely chop the bacon, add it to the rabbit as well as the mustard and tablespoon of fresh thyme. Season with salt and pepper and and loosely pack into a terrine.
Pour over the reduced cooking liquid, cool, cover and refrigerate until solid.
Remove from fridge 20 minutes before serving.

Apple Crisps

Medieval Apple Fritters

Medieval Apple Fritters

“For the sweet, Lord Caswell’s servants brought down trays of pastries from his castle kitchens, cream swans and spun-sugar unicorns, lemon cakes in the shape of roses, spiced honey biscuits and blackberry tarts, apple crisps and wheels of buttery cheese.” -A Clash of Kings

Modern Apple Fritters

Modern Apple Fritters

Thoughts:

This is my take on Martin’s “apple crisps”.  I considered making something more like a conventional apple crisp recipe, with the crumbled oats and such on top, but since the excerpt from the book mentions “crisps”, plural, I wanted to find something smaller to go with the other individual desserts in the feast. And after I found the first fritter recipe, I was sold on the idea.

The batter for the medieval fritters comes out surprisingly light due, and garnered much praise from my taste-testers.  The apples were perfectly crisp to begin with, but during the frying process transformed into a warm, soft texture just shy of gooey, while the outside batter stayed firm. The crunchiness of the fried batter is enhanced by the sugar coating, and the zest gives a hint of freshness to counter the oil. I swapped the ale in the original recipe for a sparkling hard cider, and I think it made all the difference. Add a little fancy presentation (medieval folks loved that), and all in all, the whole experience is Westeros-meets-State fair.

The modern fritters? I really liked the medieval version, but I’ll be honest: I ate a half batch of the modern fritters all by myself. They are less crispy than the old school recipe, and comes out with more of a dense, almost cake-like texture. The zest flavor is there, but helps compliment the apple flavors rather than interfering. I enjoyed mine immensely dipped in honey (maple syrup could be awesome, too), and could almost justify serving it as a breakfast dish, rather than a dessert.

Which one wins?  They’re both great, but I’ve got to give it to the medieval version!

Medieval Apple Fritters

Take whete floure, ale, zest, safroun, & salt, & bete alle togederys as thikke as thou schuldyst make other bature in fleyssche tyme, & than take fayre applys, & kut hem in maner of fretourys, & wete hemm in the bature up on downne, & frye hem in fayre oyle, & caste hem in a dyssche, & caste sugre theron & serve forth.  -Two Fifteenth Century Cookbooks

Cook’s Notes: Although it’s not called for in the original recipe, I added a pinch of dry yeast to help simulate the more bready nature of old fashioned ale. This helps give the batter its lightness.

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 bottle sparkling hard cider (6 fl. oz)
  • a few threads of saffron
  • pinch of dry yeast
  • pinch of salt
  • zest of 1/2 lemon or orange
  • 1 cup flour
  • 3-4 smallish apples
  • lard or shortening for frying
  • sugar for sprinkling over, the coarser the better
  • several whole cloves, and leaves (mint works well) to decorate

Heat the cider gently over low heat, then add the saffron. Allow to sit for about 30 minutes, which should let the saffron dissolve. Add the yeast, and stir (this should make the cider foam up impressively). Add the salt and zest, followed by the flour. Beat until the batter is light and smooth and there are no lumps of flour. You should end up with a thick, but not unworkable batter. Set aside.

Peel your apples. Using a sharp knife, take off the whole top in a slice about 1/2″ thick (this gives you a pretty top with which to top your reconstructed fritter-apples). Core the rest of the apple, then cut into 1/2″ slices. Pat dry with a paper towel.

Heat your lard or oil over medium heat; it may take some adjusting to get the temperature just right, especially as the oil is absorbed by the fritters. Dip each apple slice into the batter, then carefully lower into the hot oil. Let each slice fry for about a minute before flipping to cook the other side. The fritters are done when they are golden brown on both sides. Place on a paper towel lined plate to drain. When the slices are all cooked and cooled enough to handle, dip them in the coarse sugar.

To present, stack the fritters, small-large-small, and top them with one of the fried tops that you first sliced off the apple. You should hopefully end up with at least a couple of fritter-stacks that loosely resemble apples. If the top has no stem, place a clove in the very top, along with a leaf to add to the apple impression. Best served warm!

Modern Apple Fritters

Ingredients:

  • 2 eggs
  • 2 Tbs. sugar
  • 1/2 tsp. lemon or orange zest
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more as needed
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1-2 medium-sized apple, peeled, cored and diced
  • Vegetable oil, for frying
  • Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar, followed by the zest and milk. Gradually add the dry ingredients and the apples until everything is incorporated. Continue to add flour just a little bit at a time until the batter is thick enough that it doesn’t drip off a spoon on its own.

Heat the vegetable oil in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. When the oil is up to temperature, drop large spoonfuls of the batter into the pan, using another spoon or your finger to push the batter off. The fritters should flatten somewhat into thick shapes. Flip each fritter occasionally, until they are dark golden on both sides and cooked all the way through (you might have to check the first few until you get the knack). Place the cooked fritters on a plate lined with paper towel to drain.

Dust the tops of the fritters with confectioners’ sugar and serve with honey on the side.

Salad of Green Beans, Onions and Beets

“The wedding feast began with a thin leek soup, followed by a salad of green beans, onions, and beets…” (III:74)

Medieval Green Bean, Onion and Beet Salad


Modern Green Bean, Onion and Beet Salad

Our thoughts:

We are huge fans of beetroot, in fact they are one of our favorite veg, so we are thrilled to include them in these recipes! The color of these salads alone make them seem really impressive. They are both very similar in terms of presentation, but the taste varies.

The medieval salad tastes…well…medieval. The taste profile is somewhat weak, the strongest flavor coming from the semi-caramelized red onions. The beets taste as boiled beets should, and the green beans wouldn’t be anything without the salt we put on them. Balsamic vinegar is a must to make this dish passable.

We liked the modern salad far better, with the complexities of the thyme making the dish more interesting to eat. Broiling all the veg brought out the sweetness in each one, especially the beets and onions. The balsamic was less of a necessity on this dish, but it finishes the tastes fantastically.

Overall, if you have to choose, choose modern.

Get the Recipes!

Mereneese Lamb with salad of raisins and carrots, hot flaky bread

“That night her handmaids brought her lamb, with a salad of raisins and carrots soaked in wine, and a hot flaky bread dripping with honey.  She could eat none of it.  Did Rhaegar ever grow so weary? she wondered.  Did Aegon, after his conquest?” -A Storm of Swords

Roman Lamb and Carrots

 Thoughts:

This was a delicious dish.  Hands down one of our favorites so far.  The sweetness of the sauces suited carrots, raisins, and lamb alike, while drawing out their natural flavors.  We served our with Naan bread, warmed in the oven, and iced milk sweetened with honey.

Make it at Home!

Got Mead?

Our thoughts:

First of all, we LOVE mead.  Like, would keep our own bees so we could make our own mead kind-of-love.

Mead comes in a wider variety than you might expect.  All are honey-based, but that’s usually where the similarities end. Some meads are sweet and thick, like after dinner liquors; others are drier and spicier. Some meads, although still honey based, acquire their primary flavors from fermented fruits, or the casks in which they are aged. As such, you can find meads flavored with apples, pears, peaches, ginger root, whiskey casks, or rum casks.

Mead can be served any time of day, on its own, or with a meal. Most meads are best served at room temperature, but some of the sweeter, lighter varieties are also nice slightly chilled.

Our Recommendations:

Lurgashall English Mead is an excellent introduction to the beverage. It has a simple sweet honey flavor that is full bodied and easy to enjoy. Lurgashall’s other meads are also very good and easy to for a beginner. Typically, they cost around $21 a bottle in the US, and 8-10 pounds in the UK.

One of our personal favorites is Lurgashall Tower of London, which is aged in scotch barrels. The taste starts with spiced honey, has a hint of the best scotch flavors, then finishes with straight honey.

If you are feeling more adventurous consider anything by Dansk, especially their Viking Blood. This is a rich, serious, hearty mead that scotch drinkers will like. Another favorite is The GI. Dansk Mjod, which has a lovely ginger flavor. These are high quality and cost around $25.

A word to the wise where fruity meads are concerned: Some, especially the cheap ones, are reminiscent of cough syrup — too rich, and too sweet. The Redstone brand is fairly safe, although you are probably safest getting a straight honey mead that almost everyone will love. That said, I recently had a Honey Garden blueberry mead that was out of this world. Also, B. Nektar’s Wildberry mead is what humans taste like to vampires: intoxicatingly delicious.

Iqhilika is a South African mead that comes in bizarre flavors, such as coffee and fig. Again, interesting to try, but probably too big a risk for newcomers to the world of mead.

Overall, I highly recommend the Viking Blood, the Lurgashall, and the Honey Garden/B. Nektar if you are opting for something fruitier.

AVOID Chaucer’s mead; it’s horrible. Shame, because it has a great name and a pretty label.  Unfortunately, Chaucer’s is the mead your local liquor store is most likely to carry. Don’t buy it, even if it is your only option.

Beef and Bacon Pies

“Part of him wanted nothing so much as to hear Bran laugh again, to sup on one of Gage’s beef-and-bacon pies, to listen to Old Nan tell her tales of the children of the forest and Florian the Fool.” -A Game of Thrones

Medieval Beef-and-Bacon Pie

Thoughts:

Both of these pies are delicious, but they are very different; the medieval pie is sweet, the modern is savory.

 The sweetness of the medieval pie comes from added fruit and honey. As the pie bakes, the fruit melts, giving a lovely counter-taste to the tart vinegar and salty bacon. The fruit flavor fades into the background and what remains is a sweet, rich meat pie with an easy medley of flavors.

  The savory modern pie was more what we imagined when we read about beef-and-bacon pies of Winterfell.  For all that this is a relatively dense dish, the flavors are fairly light.  The beef, bacon, onions, and herbs are all distinguishable, but don’t linger overlong on the palate. 

Bottom line?  Medieval is sweet, modern is savory.  Make both, and tell us what you think! *The Modern recipe is now exclusively in the GoT Cookbook.

 

Medieval Beef-and-Bacon Pie

ORIGINAL RECEIPT:

To make Pyes. Pyes of mutton or beif must be fyne mynced & seasoned with pepper and salte and a lytel saffron to colour it, suet or marrow a good quantitie, a lytell vynegre, pruynes, great reasons, and dates, take the fattest of the broath of powdred beefe.  – A Propre new booke of Cokery, 1545

Our changes: We added bacon.  Delicious, thick cut bacon, in place of the marrow.  We winged the proportions a little on the dried fruit based on what was left in our pantry.  

Ingredients:

  • Pastry dough enough for 9″ pie pan, top and bottom (Recipe)
  • 1 ½ lbs. stew beef cut into small pieces
  • ½ cup bacon, diced or cut small
  • ½ tsp. pepper (or to taste)
  • ½ tsp. salt (or to taste) 
  • 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
  • 1/3 cup prunes, sliced
  • 1/3 cup raisins
  • 1/3 cup dates, chopped
  • ~1 cups beef broth
  • 2-3 Tbs. flour

On the stovetop, cook the diced bacon until the fat runs from it; drain off the fat.  To the bacon pan, add the beef, spices, vinegar & the fruit. Add enough broth to thoroughly wet the mixture – the final consistency should be runny.

Throw in the flour and cook on low heat until the juices form a sort of gravy.

Let cool. Line a 9-inch pie pan with and fill with the meat mixture. Add a pastry lid or leave open-faced. Bake at 375º F until filling is bubbling and the pastry cooked, approx. 40 minutes.

NB: The cookbook contains a better, more delicious, perfected modern pie recipe, complete with a lattice-woven bacon top.

 

Rock Your Premiere Party!

In honor of the upcoming premiere of Game of Thrones on HBO, we have put together a selection of foods that would be ideal for any premiere party.  We’ve included a selection of full recipes for those willing to try their hands in the kitchen, but also provided a “fake it” option for those with less time for or inclination towards preparation.

Make It!

In  this category, we’ve thrown out a bunch of options, and will leave the decisions to you!  You can choose to make one thing, or all of them (if you’re feeding an army).  Options are listed in order from left to right, more difficult to easier.

♦ A Full Dornish Dinner ♦

Stuffed Grapeleaves  ♦ Flatbread ♦ Olives and Feta

Honeyed Chicken ♦ Skewered Lamb/Goat/Beef ♦ Pork Pies

Cream Swans ♦ Lemon Cakes ♦ Spiced Honey Biscuits ♦ Baked Apples

Southron Mulled Wine  ♦  Mead

Fake It!

For this category, we have listed all the easy food stuffs you can get at most stores, and put together for your guests to nibble on.  Think of it as a tasty wayfarer’s meal, eaten on The King’s Road, between Winterfell and King’s Landing.

Loaf of Rustic Bread  ♦  Variety of cheeses (cheddar, brie, chevre, etc.)  ♦  Pickles

Big Bunch of Grapes  ♦  Slices of Blood Oranges,  Pears, and Apples in Lemon Juice

Pita and Hummus  ♦ Variety of Olives ♦ Packaged Stuffed Grape Leaves

Store-bought Rotisserie Chicken  ♦  Pre-marinated Shish Kebab Skewers

 Mead ♦ Wine  ♦ Cider  ♦  Ale

 NOTE: The trick to faking it effectively is purchasing high quality ingredients and presenting them well.  Consider visiting Whole Foods. If you want to feel like you are at Winterfell, the bread needs to be crusty and authentic and the cheese should come from some small farm in Vermont.  Serve on your largest wooden cutting board, with your most rustic looking knife.

Breakfast at Winterfell

“There was much more than she’d asked for: hot bread, butter and honey and blackberry preserves, a rasher of bacon and a soft-boiled egg, a wedge of cheese, a pot of mint tea.  And with came Maester Luwin.”  -A Game of Thrones

Breakfast at Winterfell, recipes from Game of Thrones

Breakfast at Winterfell

Thoughts:

The continental elegance of the soft boiled egg was a wonderful counterpart to the salty heartiness of the bacon.  Likewise, the sweetness of the preserves and honey paired well with the other elements of the meal.  It was an interesting textural experience, too.  The almost creaminess of the perfectly done soft-boiled egg, the crispiness of the bacon, and the pop of berry seeds all added something to the meal.  While it is a fairly hefty meal, the mint tea lightens it more than one would expect, and is the perfect finish to what might be the perfect breakfast.

Bottom line?  It’s cold in The North, but this is a great breakfast for any time of year, anywhere.

Make it at Home

Pork Pie

“‘If I could fly, I’d be back at Castle Black eating a pork pie,’ said Sam.” -A Clash of Kings

Medieval Pork Pie with Currants

Medieval Pork Pie with Currants

Thoughts:

When we began to make these, we naively thought, “Two meat pies?  We’ll surely have leftovers for days!”  They were gone within hours.  Like many of our modern and medieval comparisons, the resulting dishes were quite different from one another.  Here’s the breakdown:

The medieval pork pie is definitely in the sweet category.  The amount of eggs in it makes it fluffier than the modern version, and the currants and ginger only add to the sweetness.  However, it is a sweetness that really suits the pork.  We might leave out an egg or two in the future, just so the meat holds together a bit better.

The modern pork pie is dense, and is very serious about being pork.  It could have used a little more salt, but when dipped in either ketchup or BBQ sauce it is rendered delicious.  If you do have leftovers, this pie is wonderful for a quick, cold breakfast straight from the fridge.

Bottom line?  Modern is savory, medieval is sweet, but both are delicious, and will be a hit with anyone who can get their fork into one.

**NB: The cookbook contains a tweaked version of the Medieval Pie, and a much more dynamic version of the Modern Pie.**

 

Medieval Pork Pie

A-nother manere. Tak fayre porke y-broylid, & grynd it smal with yolkys of Eyroun; than take Pepir, Gyngere, & grynd it smal, & melle it with-al, & a lytel hony, & floryssche thin cofyns with-ynne & with-owte, & hele hem with thin ledys, & late hem bake, & serue forth. – Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books

Our changes: Instead of boiling down our own pork roast and grinding it up, we used pre-ground pork.  Much easier!  ALSO!  This makes a great pairing with the Cream Swans, because you will be able to use the egg yolks for this, and the whites for that.  Win!

Ingredients:

  • 1 9″ pie shell with lid
  • 1 1/2  lb. ground pork
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 6 egg yolks
  • 2 tsp. ginger
  • 1/4 tsp. pepper
  • 1/3 cup honey
  • 1/2 cup currants
  • 1/2 cup chopped dates

Brown the pork over medium heat.  Let cool slightly, and mix well with all the other ingredients – The filling should be very moist. Place mixture in pie shell & add lid. Fold top dough under and pinch edges shut.  Cut decorative steam holes in the top of the pastry, and bake at 375° F for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until a golden brown.

Modern Pork Pie

The new, updated, and totally delicious modern recipe is available in The Cookbook!

The Old Bear’s Hot Spiced Wine

“The Old Bear was particular about his hot spiced wine.  So much cinnamon and so much nutmeg and so much honey, not a drop more.  Raisins and nuts and dried berries, but no lemon, that was the rankest sort of southron heresy…” -A Clash of Kings

The Old Bear's Hot Spiced Wine

Thoughts:

The medieval recipe produces a hearty mulled wine, rich in spices.  It is heavy and strong, without the sweetness of modern mulled wine, and might not be quite as universally palatable. That said, if you are making wine to serve out of doors on a cold winter night, this is the more warming of the two recipes.

The modern recipe produces a delicious hot wine that, while spicy and rich, is medium bodied and easy to drink. The sweetness of the honey and cane sugar combines brilliantly with spice of the fresh ginger; the result is an arresting tingle that floods the palate, without compromising the other flavors.

Bottom line?  Modern if you are throwing a party, medieval if you are planning to walk The Wall at night.

(Guest review written by Firepony)

 

Medieval Mulled Wine Recipe

Cook’s notes: Don’t be afraid to meddle with the proportions to suit your taste.  The amounts of honey, and ginger are negotiable.  If you find that you’ve added too much ginger, you can add a fruit juice (“rankest of southron heresy” that it is), to balance out the flavor. The best method for adding fresh ginger is to crush it in a garlic press to release the juices. Sugar can also be added, to make the wine more drinkable for those who are not enduring freezing temperatures. Adding sugar and fruit juice make the wine more similar to the modern recipe, but are great for salvaging a batch of wine that is just a little too authentic.

ORIGINAL RECEIPT:

5. Potus ypocras. Take a half lb. of canel tried; of gyngyuer tried, a half lb.; of greynes, iii unce; of longe peper, iii unce; of clowis, ii unce; of notemugges, ii unce & a half; of carewey, ii unce; of spikenard, a half unce; of galyngale, ii unce; of sugir, ii lb. Si deficiat sugir, take a potel of honey. – Curye on Inglish: English Culinary Manuscripts of the Fourteenth-Century

Our Changes: This is a medieval recipe for hippocras, which is also mentioned in the books.  Since both are a hot spiced wine, we decided to bundle them into one post.  To match the Old Bear’s hot spiced wine description, we dropped the white pepper, and added raisins, cranberries, and almonds.  This made it more like the Scandinavian hot wine concoction “Glogg”.

Ingredients:

  • 1 bottle of an inexpensive red wine- sweet works better than dry. (Cabernet is good.)
  • 1/2 cup honey
  • 1 Tbs. each of ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, clove, nutmeg
  • Handful each of dried cherries, raisins, and almonds (slivered or sliced is best)

Bring the wine and honey to a simmer. Taste for sweetness and add honey as necessary. Remove from heat, stir in spices, and continue to stir occasionally.  After sitting, the spices will create a thick residue which will settle to the bottom. Using a ladle, serve into individual mugs or other heat-safe vessels. Consider putting the cloves in a mesh tea ball, or cheese cloth, to avoid picking cloves out of your goblet.

Fun Fact:  Ypocras was a very popular Medieval beverage, and many different directions for preparation still exist. Also called Hipocras, the drink is named after the famous physician Hippocrates.

Southron Mulled Wine

Our modern recipe is only really modern in the sense that it is still made today.  The recipe comes from the chaplain’s wife at a top British University, and while the specifics are a closely guarded secret, the basic ingredients are roughly the same as the medieval recipe above.  However, this recipe has no nuts and berries, and calls for one part orange juice per two parts wine.  The juice helps cut the acidity of the wine, and lends the mulled wine a sweetness not solely derived from honey. The citrus juice, coincidentally, makes the wine in keeping with the “southron” recipes alluded to by the Old Bear. This is much less trouble to make than it appears to be:

  • 2 bottles of red wine (Shiraz and Cabernet work well)
  • 750ml pulp-free orange juice (1/2 as much orange juice as wine)
  • 1 Tbs. cinnamon and 2 cinnamon sticks
  • 1 Tbs. nutmeg
  • ~3 1″ cubes of fresh ginger. Crush these into the wine using a garlic press.
  • ~3 tablespoons of honey
  • 3-6 heaping tablespoons of cane sugar (or white sugar)
  • 2 clementines, halved. (or 1 small orange)
  • 1/4 of a fresh lemon, squeezed over the pot. (Optional, but don’t substitute lemon juice from a bottle.)
  • 12-20 cloves. These should be inserted stem first into the rind of the clementine so that only the buds protrude. (You may need to pierce to flesh of the clementines with a small knife in order to insert the cloves.) Float the clementines in the wine, rind down, so that the cloves are in the wine.
  • 1/2 shot of brandy, cognac, or armagnac (optional, but adds a pleasant kick)

Add all of the ingredients and bring the mixture to a simmer, but DO NOT BOIL. Stir it with a whisk often. Once it simmers for 5 minutes or so, reduce the heat such that the wine is kept just below a simmer.  Heat for 45 minutes and serve with a ladle.

NOTE: The clementines make delicious boozy treats for the lucky guests still around when the wine runs out.