Holiday Glogging
Glogg is a traditional drink of the Swedish & Finnish Advent season – Advent being the six weeks leading up to Christmas. Glogg is traditionally made with red wine, and each small glass has a few almonds and raisins in it as well as the drink.
Glogg’s origins are with mulled wine – wine heated with spices. Mulled wine was known to medieval Europeans and celebrated from at least 400AD. In the 1800s, a special mulled wine was popular in Europe known as “Glahwein”, which began to incorporate the special Glogg ingredients – raisins and almonds. Glogg also tends to have more sugar as well as a heavier alcohol content. Given the frigid winters seen in Scandinavia, this must be an essential!
Glogg Recipe [from 1847]
- 75 cl (or one bottle) red wine
- 37 cl (or approximately one quart) water
- 3 cloves
- Raisins
- Almonds
- Cinnamon Sticks
- Sugar (to taste)
The temperature should not rise above 78.4 degrees Celsius (173 degrees Fahrenheit) in order to avoid reaching the boiling point and thereby loss of alcohol. For a really authentic experience serve with either some traditional Danish aebleskiver (puff pastry swabbed with healthy amounts of strawberry perserves) or Swedish pepparkakor (gingerbread biscuits).
Those locals privy to Trader Joe’s “Two Buck Chuck” (Charles Shaw) Red Wine is the perfect candidate for this type of holiday drink. The idea here is on the holidays have a pot of this brew on the back burner so while the family festivities are happening and people come to visit you can offer them a mug of glogg — sounds fun to say too.
[Image Courtesy of Dagmar T. of ACatInTheKitchen.Com]
Related Links:
ACatInTheKitchen.Com | First Advent
Wikipedia | Julebukking
