Mulled Cider

 

It's the eve of December and there are only 21 days left until the winter solstice. Each day seems to get a little shorter and a little chillier. And a little busier. My days have been pretty full with school, both my own graduate classes and student teaching, and rehearsal after dress rehearsal (the holiday season is a busy one for musicians and choral singers). Tonight was a night for rest and restoration. I made A. and I a couple grilled cheeses with tomato soup for dinner. Simple and satisfying.

I also picked up a half gallon of apple cider at the grocery store with the intention of making a long-loved mulled cider recipe. Mulling refers to taking a cider or wine and infusing it over a long and slow cooking process with a variety of spices. Mulling takes something already delicious and makes it even better; it takes a simple glass of red wine or cider and turns it into warm, velvety, and spicy comfort. The smell and the taste of this cider is interwoven with so many memories like:

Countless family trips to the White Mountains of Arizona. We often made this cider in a slow-cooker and left it simmering all day while we were out downhill or cross-country skiing. We would come home satisfactorily tired with cheeks pink from the cold. A mug of cider, a baked treat, and a game of Balderdash is often how we ended an evening.

Warming up chilled bones after a day of treasure hunting in a 19th century landfill at Dead Horse Bay. A couple hours of finding trinkets and baubles, marbles and bottles, all while being buffeted with cold, salty sea air leaves a person cold and hungry. But sitting at a kitchen table with a hot mug of cider (that has a splash of whisky in it), seems to right almost any wrong.




Mulled Apple Cider

64 fl oz of apple cider, if you can find the fresh-pressed
and no-sugar-added kind, even better!

2 sticks of cinnamon

about 10-15 whole cloves

1 orange, sliced into 1/2 inch horizontal segments

Optional: other mulling spices like ground nutmeg,
star anise, and all spice






There are a couple options for mulling the cider, but the important thing is that this is a long and slow process. If you have a slow-cooker/crock pot, put all of your ingredients in on low to medium heat for at least 2 hours. If you're doing this on the stove-top, use a nice, heavy pot. If I'm mulling on the stove-top, I bring the cider up to a simmer (not a boil!) and then cover on the lowest setting for at least an hour.

In either method, you will combine the apple cider, cinnamon sticks, cloves, (other spices of your choice), and 2-3 orange segments. Mull your cider for about 1-3 hours. At a certain point, you want to take the cider off the heat; if it continues to mull it will start to get bitter. Strain the orange and the spices  and you can store the cool cider back in the original container you bought it in or in a pitcher/jar of you're feeling fancy. As a girl, my favorite thing was to take a mug of cider and a couple of my mom's ginger snaps. Now, I like to add a splash of whisky or burbon but I would never say no to those ginger snaps.

Now where is my Jose Feliciano, Feliz Navidad LP??