Danish Gløgg (Mulled Wine)

The Husband's family is Danish (for reals, from Denmark!), and this year at Christmas he decided to try his hand at a traditional Danish holiday recipe, gløgg! (I asked him for another pronunciation lesson just last night -- he thinks it should sound something like "glooog" -- "glug" works just fine too!) After trying it, and seeing how easy it is to make, I thought, "Hey, this gløgg would be perfect for my blog! I should blog about gløgg!" (Plus, I just like saying gløgg and blog together as much as possible....)

Gløgg is a Danish mulled wine, served warm and usually around Christmastime, but it's a delicious warm beverage that works well all winter long! It's really simple to make, and is ready very quickly. We got this recipe from Husband's brother. I love old family recipes that are more "a pinch of this, a dash of that" than exact measurements -- and this one is no exception!

So, enough chit-chat, let's make some gløgg, shall we?!

Gløgg

Notes: If you are planning to make this around Christmastime, please buy the ingredients ahead of time, so you don't end up like we did, standing in the spice aisle on Christmas Eve staring at the empty rows where the cinnamon sticks and whole cloves are supposed to be. Face, meet palm. Oh, and Googling the difference between "tawny" and "velvet" port while standing in the wine aisle. Makes a good story though, right?! And the difference? Apparently regular port (some bottles say "porto") is the velvet kind, but none of them actually say velvet. The tawny ones do say tawny, though, so it's easy to figure out. Also, if you find that you don't have whole cloves, or cinnamon sticks, or cardamon seeds, you can sprinkle in ground cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom in a pinch -- it achieves a very similar (if not identical) flavor!

You will need:

Some Burgundy (wine)

Some Port (NOT Tawny)

An orange

Some whole cloves

One or two cinnamon sticks

Cardamon seeds, optional

Granulated sugar

Brother-in-law says, "Use one part Burgundy for every one part Port. Make sure you use the "velvet" Port, not the "tawny" Port, which is too intense. You can also use Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot in place of Burgundy if you need to.
Throw the wine together in a big pot, and heat it on medium-low. Don't heat it too much, or you will burn off the alcohol, which is, after all, the point. (hee hee)

For every gallon or two (they don't mess around!) of gløgg you are making, get an orange and push cloves through the skin of the orange. The cloves should be spaced about a half-inch apart, so you should have 15 or 20 cloves in an orange (You can see from my photos that I used more than that -- it's not critical if you use more.)

(You basically want the orange to look like a landmine! haha)

Drop the orange in the pot,

as well as a couple of cinnamon sticks. You can also drop some cardamon seeds in there (without the shells), but that is a minor ingredient--not to worry if you don't have any around. (We don't have any so we have never used them - it's delicious without them.)

Finally, you will need to add some sugar. I know I will sound like Mormor (Danish for mother's mother, i.e. grandmother) here, but I don't have a measurement for you, and it is hard to tell how much. I would just throw in a tablespoon per gallon to start, and then taste it -- keep adding sugar until you think it tastes right. (I think we have used less than this and it tasted great, but sweeten it however much or little you like.)

When it is warmed and ready, you can use a ladle and serve it directly from the stove top, or use a strainer to get the orange, cinnamon sticks, and cardamon seeds out,

and a funnel to

pour it back into the bottles until you want to drink it."

"Skål! ("skoll" -- Cheers in Danish!) ~ The Newlywed Chefette