Glögg
Swedish Spiced Warming Punch
Going back in time, I opened a clinic in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in early 1990, but left almost immediately for a three-week lecture tour in Australia. You can read the comment on David Helfgott that I left on the Thieving Magpie post. That was a very interesting and busy year. I was away 42 weekends and sometimes the whole week between the weekends. However, as Christmas approached, I stayed home and hosted a party on Lucia Day at the clinic. This is the first day of the holiday season for Swedes, and it is especially important for the eldest daughter in every family.
My mother probably did not take Christianity very seriously. In her mind, festivals of light were traditional ways of celebrating the defeat of darkness by the light. Really, therefore, our calendars are a mess . . . and there is rumor that Donald Trump wants to initiate calendar reform.
As the days get shorter and shorter and finally almost disappear, there is a quiet that I feel is unique to the Northern latitudes. I loved this time of year in Sweden . . . and, no, it is not really dark. When I was ten, my grandfather gave me skis for Christmas. My uncle, cousin, and I skied for at least ten days between Christmas and New Year’s. It is snowing now as I write this: big heavy flakes and everything is becoming whiter and whiter.
At the solstice, the Sun enters a cave and then emerges after three days in the tomb. Obviously, this is the astronomical reason we celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25th; but, in Sweden, Christmas Eve is more important than Christmas Day.
As an astrologer, I would propose that Jesus was born in summer because the Wise Men were following the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in Pisces. Due to retrogradation, this occurred three times, one of which included Mars. Anyway, no one is going to change the date on which we celebrate the birth of Christ just because of something I write.
Back to Lucia . . . there is an official story and my mother’s version of it. I have had to rewrite a lot of scripts from my childhood. The holiday season begins on Lucia Day, always December 13th. The eldest daughter dresses in white gown with a red sash and wears a crown of candles on her head. She brings cookies and pastries to her parents, breakfast in bed, and then to the neighbors. It is celebrated everywhere in Sweden and opens with hospitality and great expectations for the triumph of good over evil.
This post is not about Lucia, celebrations, winter snow, or even good over evil, it is about an important lesson I learned that has been of inestimable value for decades.
During the holidays, Swedes traditionally serve a hot spicy punch called, glögg. I made some for a party, and it was a great success. Come February, it was time for another party and no one in the clinic remembered where the crock pot was. When we found it, we drew straws to see who would remove the lid since obviously, all of us forgot to wash it two months earlier. Lo and behold, the contents were perfect. There was not a trace of mold and the aroma was still lovely.
There is no one recipe for glögg. One can make a kiddy glögg, a glögg for abstainers, a more traditional “Viking” glögg, or just about anything you can imagine. Let’s start, however with some basics. Get an orange (or other citrus fruit) and stick it full of whole cloves.
Next, you will need some cinnamon sticks. Star anise and cardamom as well as nutmeg can also be added. You have many choices for the liquid. I usually make mine with various berry juices: grapes, raspberries, blackberries, cherries, elderberries, cranberries and plum juice. Some people also use apple juice or a mixture of many kinds of juice. Some use only wine, red wines! Some use exotic wines like pomegranate, one of my favorites. Those who like to make the wine more medicinal can add rose hips, hibiscus flowers, schisandra and/or goji berries, and various herbs like astragalus or dandelions or even wormwood. We usually added raisins and a few almonds to our glögg. One winter, someone threw the raisins onto the snow and ravens ate them. They could not fly afterwards because they were so tipsy.
In Sweden, glögg is usually made with akvavit. Maybe those with Viking DNA can handle this, but I found most others become quickly flushed and dizzy! A word to the wise! If one does want a higher alcohol content, then the akavit (or vodka) can be added right before serving since the heat will cause most of the alcohol to evaporate, meaning that holding one’s head over the pot is not advisable.
Crock pots are idea vessels but one can use anything where the temperature can be kept fairly low.
Skål
Glögg is served warm. When I was growing up, we had special glasses we only used for glögg. They were quite small and had paintings of reindeer and elves and Christmas trees. They probably only held a maximum of three ounces, and this is enough to stay quite warm in winter.
The “point” of this post was not really to share stories or recipes but to draw attention to the fact that a fruity beverage with spices was not refrigerated during the two months it was hiding, but absolutely no sign of mold appeared. This was the basis of my diffuser blend for inhibiting the growth of mold . . . and now you know how events that are separated in time eventually leave little dots that generate synaptic responses, sudden memory recalls, and logic!
We will be uploading another mold trailer very soon. Not to take the wind out of my own sails, but it is about stress and stamina. I have finished my end and the video and the producer is rolling as we speak.
Copyright by Dr. Ingrid Naiman 2023 || All Rights Reserved
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Image Credits:
Little Lucia Girl: Crazymouse | Dreamstime.com
Orange: Margouillat | Dreamstime.com
Glögg: Kovac Mario | Dreamstime.com