The winter season dictates its rules on clothes, shoes, food and even drinks. On frosty evenings, there is nothing better than warming yourself with freshly brewed mulled wine of your own preparation. This drink has a bright taste and excellent warming properties, which is very important after a day spent on the street for winter entertainment. The classic recipe for mulled wine is not very difficult, so you can easily make it yourself.
How is it different from other drinks?
By the way, using mulled wine, you can combine business with pleasure:
- The spices and spices that make up the drink have a beneficial effect on the condition of the body. Cinnamon not only tastes good, it improves the functioning of brain neurons, and also helps digestion. Nutmeg and cloves will strengthen the nervous system, help to relax. The heart and blood vessels, in turn, will support vanilla.
- The main component of a spicy drink - red wine - is rich in antioxidants and minerals.
In order to enjoy the miracle drink, you must master its preparation at home. Unfortunately, there is no single recipe from ancient sources, but there are general rules, following which you can cook delicious mulled wine yourself.
What are the basic rules?
Mulled wine is impossible to imagine without a spicy taste. To achieve this effect, ground spices are used - so they will give the drink their flavor much better. Before adding wine, they must be boiled in water. In order for the wine not to lose its beneficial properties and taste, it should not be boiled. The classic recipe for mulled wine includes the following steps. It is important to comply with them!
You need to cook mulled wine over low heat, slowly mixing the ingredients. The best basis for it is red dry wine. The choice of quality wine will provide the drink an excellent taste.
To give the taste an interesting note, as well as to increase the degree, you can add rum or cognac. In some countries there is even a cult of similar drinks. Bringing the drink to a temperature close to boiling, you need to stop heating and insist it under the lid. To complement the taste of the drink, you can add fruits: apples, orange. It is possible to add more sweetness with sugar or honey.
The taste of mulled wine will be fully revealed after it is infused. But do not let it cool too much - the drink should be consumed warm.
Traditional option
The classic recipe for mulled wine at home requires the use of a specific list of components and equipment. You will need a ready-made set of spices (which can be purchased at any store), an enameled pan (it is not recommended to use a container made of stainless steel), a wooden spatula, a ladle. You should also prepare in advance the dishes in which you will serve.
For a beautiful presentation of a warming drink you need thick-walled transparent glasses that will once again emphasize the beauty and nobility of this wonderful brew. In addition, they remain warm and you can enjoy longer mulled wine.
The choice of wine for a warming homemade drink
As noted above, for a recipe for making classic mulled wine at home, you will need a certain set of components. Wine is the most important ingredient in a warming drink. You can use any for a relaxing, fragrant and tasty mulled wine, but it is the dry variety that is best suited for cooking. For mulled wine, it is recommended to take red wine, but white is also acceptable. When using a dry variety, it will be easier to select the amount of sugar. When choosing semisweet or semi-dry wine as the basis, mulled wine can be easily sugared.
When using a dessert or fortified variety, the product will give away alcohol. So that your drink does not have such a smell and taste, winemakers advise making it from such wine as saperavi, merlot, khvanchkara and the like.
Spices for a drink
What else is needed for a classic mulled wine recipe? The most essential ingredients of this warming hot drink are sugar and honey. About 4 tablespoons of granulated sugar per liter are added to dry wine. It is important not to overdo it, otherwise it will turn out to be too sweet a drink that will be impossible to drink. Sugar can be replaced with honey, adding it to mulled wine at the final stage of readiness. Spices are also needed:
- For the classic recipe for mulled wine, you need cloves and cinnamon.
- If you are fond of sour, add barberry and ginger.
- For lovers of hot pepper, it is recommended to add black and allspice (you need to put it very slightly so as not to spoil the taste of the product).
- To obtain a peculiar color and delicate taste with aroma, anise and anise are used.
- You can also add nutmeg and coriander for a flavoring shade.
- To obtain the similarities with martini, you can use mint, lemon balm and the like herbs.
- Saffron will give the taste astringency, and the color will make it pronounced.
- Hazelnuts and almonds will make mulled wine more refined.
- Also, raspberries, cranberries and dried fruits are used to make this excellent warming drink.
How to make a drink at home: general recommendations
What does a homemade recipe look like? Classic mulled wine has become a traditional drink in Western Europe a long time ago. To do this, you do not have to wait for the holiday, many warm up and relax after a normal working day with family or friends in order to get a charge of positive energy and good mood.
For the preparation of mulled wine, it is not necessary to buy expensive wine, you can use Merlot, Cabernet or Bordeaux. Such varieties are available to everyone. When preparing, it is necessary to follow certain technology and instructions so as not to spoil the drink. The classic recipe and the rules for making mulled wine are as follows.
First, we heat our wine to a temperature of 75 degrees. You can’t bring it to a boil, because you will get a “compote”, which will not bring pleasure, and alcohol will evaporate in it.
How to determine the temperature of the drink?
In order to determine the temperature, you do not need a thermometer. To do this, carefully monitor the disappearance of the white foam that appears during heating, and after its dissolution, you can be sure that the drink is almost ready. As the wine heats up, mix it with the cooked broth.
So that the spices and spices that you added do not interfere with the glass, you need to strain the warming drink. These are the basic requirements of a recipe for making classic alcoholic mulled wine.
It is recommended to use it hot to feel sophistication. In order to “savor” longer with hot mulled wine, you need to drink slowly. This will help and feel the whole set of spices. Such a drink is best served in thick-walled tall mugs or glasses, as noted above. It goes well with fruits, desserts, meat, fish.
Walkthrough
This classic step-by-step recipe for mulled wine will be an indispensable tool even for a beginner in this business. To create this drink, special glassware is useful - a cauldron with a thick bottom. The ingredients for the drink are as follows:
- Dry red wine - 700 ml.
- Water - 65 ml.
- Sugar - 1 tbsp. l
- Carnation - 7 pcs.
- Nutmeg is on the tip of a knife.
How to cook classic mulled wine: a recipe for cooking with a photo
Pour the spices into the cauldron and fill them with cold water. We put the dishes on a small fire and bring to a boil. When the aroma of spices appears in the kitchen, the cauldron should be removed from the heat and allowed to cool for 15 minutes.
After we add wine to our broth and heat the dishes. Mix it with prepared spices and add sugar. It is necessary to ensure that the sugar is completely dissolved and does not sink to the bottom, otherwise the taste of the drink can be considered spoiled.
The next step in creating mulled wine is the most responsible. You need to bring the drink to 75 degrees and leave it on fire for a couple of minutes, the most important thing is not to overdo it! After the appearance of white foam, you can turn off the fire. Mulled wine should be filtered, and then you can pour it on serving dishes. For filtering, you can use gauze or a special sieve. As you can see, you can easily follow the steps in the recipe for making classic alcoholic mulled wine at home.
How to make a drink with apple and orange at home?
Mulled wine with fruits is much tastier and more aromatic than classic. According to many reviews, its aroma is associated with autumn. For the classic recipe for mulled wine with oranges and apples, you need the following ingredients:
- Any dry wine - 750 ml.
- Small apples - 2 pcs.
- Oranges - 1 pc.
- Dried star anise - 2 pcs.
- Nutmeg - 1 pc.
- Carnation - 2 pcs.
- Allspice - 8-10 peas.
- Water - 100 ml.
- Sugar - 1 tbsp. l (can be replaced with honey).
Spices, as in the traditional recipe, are poured with water and brought to a boil. After the appearance of aroma in the room, the broth should be removed from the heat and cool.
We clean the fruit from the peel, cut into slices or cubes, the same size. Pour the finished fruit with wine and add spices to them. You can also add orange zest to mulled wine.
On medium heat we heat the drink until the first bubbles form. If honey is used, then you need to add it at the very end to preserve its useful properties.
When the mulled wine is heated to 75 degrees, you should remove it from the heat and pour it on the cooked dishes. You can use glasses and beautiful wine glasses. It is advisable to strain the drink - you can use gauze for this. For beauty, the glasses can be decorated with orange slices, before serving, add honey to the bottom of the glasses. Drinking a drink is better not to rush to enjoy its sophisticated taste and aroma.
As you can see, the classic recipe for mulled wine with apple and orange requires the same actions as a regular one.
Drinking Tricks
When preparing both classic and fruit mulled wine, a certain number of rules should be observed. They were listed in detail above. To summarize, the basic principles are as follows:
- To create a tasty drink, it is better to take fruit, but you can not overdo it, otherwise the drink will look like compote.
- Spices that are used in the cooking process should not be crushed, because the drink may become cloudy.
- It is advisable to peel the fruits that are used in preparation so that the substances that are processed for storage do not get into the drink.
- An excellent snack for mulled wine will be fruits, pastries and meat cooked on a fire.
- To create mulled wine, it is better to take a two or three-liter container with a thick bottom, you can also use larger dishes. Experts do not recommend using a metal pan, because it can oxidize during the preparation of a drink.
- You should not take fortified wines, because they can give the drink an alcoholic smell.
Final word
And, in conclusion, it is worth noting that among all winter drinks, it is spicy mulled wine with fruits that occupies an honorable first place. On cold winter nights, he calms, relaxes, gives strength and energy. Having tasted a glass of such a fragrant drink, you can see how a bad mood slowly gives way to a good one, all problems and troubles recede into the background, and strength comes back with a double portion.
There is also non-alcoholic mulled wine, in the preparation of which wine is replaced with cherry or grape juice.