New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
Wassail or Hard Cider
The word Wassail instantly conjures up Christmas Carols as it is synonymous with the virtually dead activity. Whatever happened to that?
The word is an Old English word was hál, meaning “be healthy” which was itself taken from Old Norse. That’s just hoity-toity talk to say that the word goes back a looooooong way. In fact, to the Middle Ages when it was used a good thousand years or more, ago. So long ago, that you wouldn’t understand the English if you heard it today. The point is that the word and drink was common parlance at one point in England well before the United States existed.
The reason for its popularity and why it is associated with Christmas is because Wassail is a cider-based drink and apples are harvested late in the year and there is typically a surplus. What to do when you have a surplus of fruit? Make booze, of course!
The hot, mulled punch or cider was originally made from a mead – fermented honey – in which roasted crab apples were tossed in. Sound familiar? Yes, this is the original “bobbing for apples.” Apparently, someone thought “Mead is gross. Let’s just make booze from the apples and forget the mead.” Kick it up a notch by mulling it with nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon and some sugar, then heat it up since it was cold outside and you have wassail – the perfect hot cup of something with alcohol in it to warm your bones while caroling.
Well, we know that booze heating you up is just an Old Wive’s Tale – these wise ladies got a bad rap if you ask me – but its placebic effect was enough. Along with thinking the booze was heating you up, was the ginger which actually does improve circulation. A little ginger, a little placebo, and you were warmer or at least you thought so. “It’s real to me damn it.”
Eggnog
Once upon a time, in the Pleistocene Era – which for those of you who don’t know, is in the early to middle 1970s – eggnog was a popular holiday drink mom would make and kids would go mad for it. The first eggnog of the season was a momentous one: it officially signaled that school vacation was coming, lots of holiday specials on TV, driving about looking for Christmas trees, and unwrapping presents was all right around the corner.
The story behind the word is an ugly, dull one that covers centuries and many nations. Yeah, not going there. The only fact surrounding the word is that the first known use of the word “nog” was in 1693. What about the “egg”? Not going there either. Who cares about that stuff?
Eggnog brought the whole house together because the kids could join in drinking it and the adults could get the spiked version. It was fun as a kid, to pretend you were joining the adults and maybe, just maybe an adult accidentally put a little booze in yours. You could even placebo yourself into swearing it happened and you were a bit tipsy.
Traditionally a mixture of milk and cream, some whipped egg whites, egg yolks and sweetened with sugar before whipping it into a froth, you then would sprinkle a little cinnamon and/or nutmeg over the top. Adults could add a little whiskey, rum or brandy with it and for those cold days you could warm it up.
These days, you “run to Cumby’s” and choose from 813 flavors including cookie dough, Oreo, sugar cookie, etc. Is that stuff even have egg or nog in it? The ingredients are usually listed something like milk, sugar, cream, sugar, egg whites, sugar, egg yolks, sugar, and then sugar. You can even get eggnog “creamers” whereby you can make eggnog lattes, add to your coffee, or even pour into you custard mix. Of course, all of those creamers come in the 813 flavors.
Call me a throwback, but I’ll take the homemade traditional eggnog over those cleverly disguised “milkssugars” any day. Same with the coffee. Can we just leave some things alone?
Hot Toddy
The Hot Toddy is a perennial favorite and one that tops many people’s list. Why? Well it has booze. That’s it. Just kidding.
The word Toddy was gifted to us from India – the culture that also gave us words like pajamas, bungalow, loot, and punch as in liquor and fruit. They also gave us vindaloo, roti, curry, raga, Yoga, Bollywood, Sanskrit, and Nithya Menen. Good people, those Indians.
The Hot Toddy became famous or infamous depending on your point of view, as a nightcap. The typical Hot Toddy was some warmed whiskey, water, honey, a dash of clove and cinnamon, and optionally use tea instead of water. Place a slice or lemon on the rim and you will have sweet dreams of chestnuts roasting on an open fire. If not, at least it would put you in a good mood and your heart wouldn’t be an empty hole, your brain wouldn’t be full of spiders and you wouldn’t have garlic in your soul. No one likes a mean one around the holidays.
