Old Fashioned Wassail Recipe

5 from 4 votes

Old Fashioned Wassail Recipe

This old fashioned wassail recipe is the center of my personal Venn diagram, where singing, drinks, and the winter holidays meet. It's warm, cozy — and nonalcoholic, but with a bottle of bourbon on the side.

Prep Time10

Cook Time40

Total Time50

Course: Virgin Drinks

Cuisine: American

Keyword: old fashioned wassail recipe

Author: Carolyn Gratzer Cope

Ingredients

8 cups 1(893 ml) apple cider
2 cups (475 ml) pulp-free orange juice
2 cups (475 ml) cranberry juice cocktail
2 navel oranges divided
2 red apples divided
1 teaspoon whole cloves
2 cups (200 grams) fresh cranberries, divided
6 cinnamon sticks
6 star anise
1 to 2 cups up to (475 ml) bourbon, optional

Instructions

Pour the apple cider, orange juice, and cranberry juice cocktail into a 5-quart pot. Set over high heat and bring to a boil.
While the mixture heats, slice the oranges and the apples crosswise into thin slices. Remove apple seeds.
Press a few cloves into the flesh of each apple slice until all the cloves are accounted for.
When the mixture boils, reduce the heat to maintain a gentle simmer.
Add half the apple slices (including all of the ones studded with cloves), half the orange slices, half the cranberries, four of the cinnamon sticks, and three of the star anise to the pot.
Simmer for 30 minutes.
Strain the wassail through a cheesecloth-lined sieve into a large bowl. This removes any accumulated foam along with the spent fruit and spices.
Pour strained wassail back into the pot or into a slow cooker. In either case, set on low heat to keep warm.
Place the remaining cinnamon sticks and star anise into the pot, along with some of the apple and orange slices and cranberries. Reserve some of the fruit to garnish individual servings.
To serve, ladle wassail into mugs, and garnish with fruit if you like. Stir an ounce or two of bourbon into the mugs of any takers.

Notes

Apple cider is a gently sweet, complex ingredient in its own right. I tend to grab whatever local, unfiltered cider I see in the shops in the fall and winter.
You can squeeze your own fresh orange juice or use a pulp-free variety from the grocery store.
Cranberry juice cocktail gives the wassail a gentle pink hue and adds a lovely, bright flavor. Use the run-of-the-mill stuff from the grocery store, which has plenty of added sugar.
You'll use three types of warm, wintery whole spices: cinnamon sticks, star anise, and cloves.
You can use any variety of red apples — I like honeycrisps.
Navel oranges are seedless and slice easily.
The fresh cranberries will pop as the wassail simmers, adding more flavor and rosy color to the result.
You can simmer the wassail up to a week in advance, cool it and store in an airtight container in the fridge. Reheat and add fresh fruit and spices right before serving.
Leftovers will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for a week and can be reheated in the microwave or on the stovetop.

Slow cooker directions

Follow all of the instructions above, but cook the wassail on low for about six hours before straining as directed and returning to the slow cooker to keep warm.

Nutrition