I love a traditional wassail, and I make it three times a year – on the first day of snow, on the longest night of the year and on New Year’s Eve. And today marks the longest night of the year and the shortest day. We’ll celebrate with wassail and by lighting a candle that will burn all day long and into the dark, dark night. Wassail, like the celebration of the winter solstice, is steeped in ancient tradition and it is that ancient tradition, as you might imagine, that I love – that otherworldly feeling of connectedness to past and future generations all in one heady sip of spiced cider and brandy. So it’s this – a traditional wassail recipe – I offer to you as my yuletide gift and I pray you use it in the very best of health.
Traditional Wassailing (and, incidentally, Toasting)
Wassail, first started as a greeting or as a toast. Waes hael, revelers might say holding up a mug of spiced cider. Eventually, as things go, wassail referred less often to the greeting and more often to the drink. Similarly, the toast that was traditionally floated atop the wassail eventually became our toast; that is, when you hold up your glass and announce, “Let’s have a toast,” or ”I’ll toast to that,” you’re paying homage to this very old ritual of floating a bit of toast in a spiced ale, a mulled wine or a traditional wassail as an honor or in celebration.
Wassailing itself – the habit of visiting neighbors, singing carols and sharing drink – is a long-standing tradition related to another ritual of the seasons, mumming. Mumming, despite having fallen from favor most everywhere, is still practiced in my community where a troupe of masked revelers travels from restaurant to restaurant on the autumnal equinox singing songs, performing for restaurant patrons and drinking their fill from the wells of the bars. You can see more pictures of this week-long harvest festival here and here and here. And so it is with wassailing, too, except that in some areas of England, wassailers didn’t travel from house to house performing for a drink; rather, they’d venture out of the home with a trimmed bowl of wassail and would offer it in the street for a few pennies.
But in my favorite of the wassail traditions, the spiced cider was offered as an ancient honor to the trees. In wintertime, wassailers would prepare the traditional wassail – soaking pieces of bread, cake or toast in it – and travel from apple orchard to apple orchard in effort to ensure a good harvest for the coming year. Wassail-soaked pieces of bread or toast were then buried at the trees’ roots or hung in the trees’ branches to appease the tree spirits and feed them well until the next harvest.
Eggs in Traditional Wassail
You’ll note that the traditional wassail recipe listed below also includes egg. Egg is often included in traditional alcoholic beverages including both wassail and, of course, the more easily recognized egg nog. Egg is rich in nutrients like choline and biotin, but it’s the saturated fat found in egg that proves to be its greatest benefit as it relates to alcohol. Alcohol challenges the liver, but saturated fat helps to mitigate the effect of alcohol on the liver, meaning that moderate and occasional consumption of alcohol in conjunction with foods rich in healthy fats – like eggs, may help to offset any potential damage. Life is, after all, about balance.
| Traditional Wassail | Print |
- 4 small apples
- ¼ cup unrefined cane sugar
- 1 medium orange
- 13 whole cloves
- 2 quarts hard apple cider
- ½ cup brandy
- 1 tbsp powdered ginger
- 1 tsp grated nutmeg
- 6 allspice berries
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 6 large eggs, (separated)
- toast, (optional, to serve with)
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Scoop out the core of the apples without fully penetrating the apple – a melon baller works well. Fill each apple with about a tablespoon of unrefined cane sugar. Place the apples in the baking sheet. Stud an orange with thirteen cloves and place it in the baking sheet. Bake the apples and orange together for forty minutes.
- While the apples and orange bake, pour apple cider and brandy into a heavy-bottomed stock pot and warm over moderately low heat. Whisk in powdered ginger and grated nutmeg. Do not bring the wassail to a boil.
- Cut a small square of the butter muslin and place allspice and cinnamon into the square; tie with 100% cotton cooking twine and float this sachet of spices in the wassail as it warms.
- Beat egg yolks until light in color and set aside. In a separate bowl, whip egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold egg yolks into whites, then temper the eggs by slowly pouring one-half cup wassail into the eggs. Remove the spice sachet from the wassail and pour in the tempered eggs. Transfer to a punch bowl. Float baked apples and orange in the wassail and serve by the mug, topping each much with a small slice of toast if desired.
There are no eggs listed in the recipe ingredients.
This recipe looks amazing! I’d really like to try it this year with the tempered eggs. How exactly do you “stud” an orange with cloves?
Andn how many eggs?
The recipe does list 6 large eggs, separated. I too would like to know how to stud an orange!.
To stud an orange you simply push the cloves into the peel of the orange.
6 sweetheart
500
eggs
Poke the cloves into the skin of the orange.
Thanks Jenny!
I want to try this Wassail along side my Tom & Jerry party this season.
Do you know a recipe for Tom & Jerry’s?
Tom and Jerry Batter Mix and Recipe
6 Eggs, Separated
1-1/4 cup Granulated Sugar
1/2 cup Powdered Sugar
Vanilla Extract (Real, not Imitation)
1/8 tsp Baking Soda
1 Jigger Rum
1 Jigger Brandy or Whiskey
Boiling Water (or Milk for Richness)
1. On High, Beat Egg Whites Until Soft Peaks form. Gradually add Sugars, beating well with Mixer until very stiff.
2. In another Bowl, On High, Beat Yokes until thickened (5-10 minutes) with Electric Mixer.
3. Carefully Fold Whites into Yoke Batter. Add 6 Drops Vanilla Extract and Baking Soda.
4. Keep Refrigerated. Keeps up to 2 days; but will separate and lose volume; just mix remainder for use.
5. In a Large Mug, Add Liquors and Boiling Water or Milk up to 3/4 of Mug. Top with Tom & Jerry Batter.
Sprinkle with Nutmeg and Add Cinnamon Stick to Stir or Spoon.
Made this for a work party. Turned out amazing. Thanks for the recipe – the authenticity adds to its charm.
Hello Cal, I don’t know if you will see this message 2 years later…but I am planning on preparing this for a party this week- about how many did a pitcher serve?
Where would you get hard apple cider? A liquor store?
Yes – most liquor stories carry it.
What is butter muslin??
It’s kind of like cheesecloth, which will work also.
I am curious as to your reference for this recipe. I am trying to document the source for research purposes and I just can’t find a wassail that calls for eggs. I’ve been searching in receipt books that date back as far as the 1500’s and have had no luck.
I am curious as to how you would substitute to make it non-alcoholic? We have a lot of kids in our family and I would like to make a batch with & without alcohol. Thanks!
Regular apple cider (unfiltered apple juice) from the grocery store should work just fine. Instead of brandy, you could use cranberry juice. Or simply don’t put any brandy in.
Unfiltered apple juice for kids? Very brave.
A little cooked brandy might be o.k. Cook off the alcohol and the flavor will still be there.
BTW< there is a little alcohol in some cultured foods as well so you be the judge for your family.
My grandmother used to mix a little Kaluha with a glass of milk for me. Great flavor and she never gave me more than a spoonful. Good times! LOL
I have always been curious about Wassail — who knew it was so … drinkable! Pinning 🙂
This is amazing! Me and the hubs just made this, however we are only two people! Can we refirgerate this and warm it up in the next couple days? Thank you for giving us a new tradition!
Could you use hard apple cider like Angry Orchard for this recipe?
I think so.
Made this and it’s delicious. It did not say where to add the sugar except in the apples. I remembered after the first cup that i saw 1 cup of sugar in the ingredients. It definitely needed some sugar so added it then.
We here in Philadelphia still “Mummer” every Jan 1, rain shine or snow !
Just made this and realized there wasn’t instructions on whereto put the rest of the sugar? Any suggestions?
For those of you who don’t know what “studding an orange” refers to, think of studded tires.
How do we feel about consuming raw eggs? It goes against my understanding of food safety, but Jenny, many of your recipes call for raw eggs. Do you have a way to make me feel better about this? Thanks!
Hi Damaris,
The risk of illness from raw egg yolks is so incredibly minimal that I don’t find it’s worth a worry. Yes, that risk gets an enormous amount of press, but it is, in reality, quite small. I’ve eaten them for years, including during pregnancy, and I feed them to my child, too. Many traditional foods include raw egg yolk and they are a powerhouse of nutrition – particularly choline and biotin. Choline is relatively heat-stable, but biotin is not.
The actual risk of salmonella contamination is about 1 out of 20,000 eggs from hens raised in the industrial, confined model. There’s a fair amount of evidence that hens raised on pasture are less likely to be carriers of salmonella, so the risk is even lower. Read more here: http://slate.me/1cdcg9w.
Thanks for sharing this– looking forward to trying it out a holiday party this year. Should the wassail be served warm?
Thanks!
Hi Emily,
Yes, we serve it warm.
Can I make this with unfiltered apple juice instead of hard cider and brandy? I have kids and would like them to have some of this at Christmas time.
Thank you!
You could try and let us know how it goes.
I was told by a friend who grew up in New Braunfels, Tx that
There is a wassail festival there every November.
Sweet nostalgia… this reminded me of one of my favorite “traditions” my woman’s college had. It was founded in 1884, though I’m not sure how far back the “wassaling & hanging of the greens” tradition went. All the girls would carol going hall to hall, & main building, to library etc hanging live green wreaths on each. Then finally down the streets of the town to the presidents where she would invite us in for wassail. It was the first I had heard of it. Delicious! Its one of those few memories that “glows” of holiday spirit in my mind. Cant wait to try it this year!