| Ingredients: |
|---|
| 1 litre vodka |
| 2 litres red wine, dry |
| 3 sticks cinnamon, whole |
| 12 whole cloves (about 1 tbsp) |
| 1 tsp whole cardamom seeds (not the pods, just the seeds) |
| 1 whole nutmeg, cracked |
| 1/2 pound (200 grams) raisins |
| 1/4 pound (100 grams) candied orange peel (diced) |
| 1/4 pound (100 grams) dried figs (chopped) |
| 1 sugar cone or about 1/2 pound (200 grams) sugar cubes (or to taste) |
| 1/2 pound (200 grams) almonds (blanched, whole) |
Pre-preparation: combine vodka with spices, raisins, orange peel, and figs. Allow to steep for a week or longer, in a sealed container. Hint: assemble the spices in a small container such as a large tea infuser, or wrap them in a piece of cheesecloth, so that you don't get cardamom seeds etc. in your teeth later.
To make the glögg: combine the vodka, spices and fruit in a pot, add the wine, and heat to just before boiling. Put the sugar (cubes or cone) in a long-handled sieve, and hold it over the hot liquid. Light a match to the liquid in the pot, so that it burns evenly, and with a long-handled ladle, ladle the flaming liquid over the sugar in the sieve, allowing it to drip back into the pot. Keep ladelling until all the sugar is melted and all the liquid is back in the pot; make sure that the alcohol continues to burn during this process. If the flames die, the liquid has become too cool, so reheat and set fire to it again.
When all the sugar has melted, put a lid on the pot to extinguish the flames. Ladle the hot (but no longer burning) glögg into small cups, ensuring that a little of the fruit goes into each serving. Add a couple of almonds to each cup, and serve very hot.
The left-over fruit and spices can be used again and again, merely by adding more vodka and wine (in the proportions 1 to 2), and reburning with more sugar. Do not omit burning the alcohol over the sugar, as this is what gives the brew a hint of caramel, and distinguished a Swedish glögg from its German cousin Glühwein.
PS It tastes even better when reheated the second (third, etc) day after burning.
A Swedish recipe, translated by Laine G.M. Ruus, 1982/12