ruby port

St. Charles Punch

sugar

lemon juice

V.S.O.P. Cognac

Orange wheel

raspberries

In a cocktail shaker, dissolve sugar in lemon juice. Add ice, Cognac and port. Shake well and strain into a highball glass full of shaved ice. Garnish with orange wheel and a few raspberries.

‘‘I’ll raise your salary, and endeavour to assist your struggling family,’’ Scrooge tells Bob Cratchit near the end of A Christmas Carol, ‘‘and we will discuss your affairs this very afternoon, over a Christmas bowl of smoking bishop!’’ This recipe, adapted from the book Drinking With Dickens, by Charles Dickens’s great-grandson, Cedric, reflects Scrooge’s new disposition and largesse perfectly: it’s warm and sweet and meant for sharing. (To Cedric Dickens’s recipe, I’ve added some fragrant cardamom pods, because years of drinking <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/11/magazine/glogg-before-nog.html">glogg</a> have shown me how well they play with orange and wine, but you may omit them). 

If you’re unable to find Seville oranges—marked by a pleasant, pronounced bitterness — substitute five navel oranges, and add the juice of one lemon when you add the port to the pan (do not stud the lemon with cloves or roast the lemon with the oranges).

Smoking Bishop

Seville oranges

Demerara sugar

red wine

Ruby port

cloves

green cardamom pods

Orange peel

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Prepare oranges for roasting: wash and dry them well, and stud each fruit equally with cloves. Roast the clove-studded fruits in the oven for an hour, then transfer them to a large glass or ceramic bowl.

Add the sugar and the red wine (do not add the port yet) to the bowl. Cover the bowl and leave it in a warm spot in the kitchen for at least 12 hours, and up to 24.

After the citrus-sugar-wine mixture has rested, cut the fruits in half and juice them through a strainer into the wine and sugar mixture. Discard fruits after they have been juiced. Strain the mixture again, this time into a heavy saucepan. Discard solids.

Add the port, the cinnamon stick, and the cardamom pods to the saucepan, and heat very slowly—until it “smokes” (the vapors rise), hence the name; do not allow it to boil.

Once the Bishop is as hot as you like, turn off the heat. Remove the cinnamon stick and cardamom pods. Serve in warmed, heatproof glasses, garnished with orange peel.

Learn to make a Victorian inspired recipe for Smoking Bishop, a mulled wine holiday punch from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

oranges

lemons

cinnamon

allspice

mace

ginger root (thumb-sized),

milliliters red wine ((1 bottle))

milliliters ruby port ((1 bottle))

Cinnamon

If using organic oranges and lemon, remove any stickers and scrub them clean gently with a brush or rough sponge, then pat dry. If using non-organic citrus, fruit will have a thicker layer of wax on the peel. It is best to remove the wax from the outer peel before proceeding. To do this, combine 1 cup of water with 2 tbsp distilled white vinegar and 1 tbsp lemon juice. Pour the solution into a spray bottle and spray the fruit to coat, or dip the fruit into the solution to cover completely. Let the fruit sit for 10 minutes, then rinse under cool water and scrub gently with a brush or rough sponge till the wax is removed. Pat dry.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. To start, you will need the 5 oranges and 1 of the lemons; reserve the second lemon for later. Make 5 small incisions with a sharp knife into each orange and the lemon. Stick whole cloves into each incision. Place oranges and lemon on a baking sheet.Place the fruit in the oven. Let it roast for about 75 minutes, until the peels begin to lose their bright color and turn paler. Remove fruit from the oven. Replace any cloves that have fallen from their incisions, then place the fruit into the bottom of a large bowl.

In a small saucepan, combine 1 cup of water with the cinnamon, allspice, mace, and ginger chunks. Whisk together and bring to a boil. Simmer the mixture for a few minutes, stirring frequently, till the liquid is reduced by half. Remove from heat.

In a larger pan, pour the bottle of red wine (not the port) and heat over medium high till it boils. Reduce heat to a slow simmer, then pour in the sugar and whisk till it dissolves. Let the wine simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in the spiced liquid mixture. Remove from heat.

Pour the heated wine over the roasted oranges and lemon. Stir the fruit and wine gently to combine.Cover the bowl with a towel or plastic wrap. Place the bowl in a warm corner for 24 hours. I like to keep it closed in the oven, with the oven turned off—it seems to stay warmer than the rest of the kitchen due to the pilot light, especially during the winter.

After 24 hours, slice the oranges and lemon in half. Juice them into the spiced wine.

Pour the wine mixture through a wire mesh strainer into a pot to remove large spices and solids. Press down gently on the solids with a spoon to remove as much liquid as possible.

Add the bottle of port to the pot. Stir and heat over medium till hot, but do not boil.

Vapors will begin to rise from the warming wine—this is the “smoking” part of the “smoking bishop.” Taste the mixture; add more sugar to taste, if desired.

Cut the remaining lemon into rounds or wedges and float them in the warmed wine. Pour the wine into heat-safe mugs or glasses, or serve in a punch bowl.

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St. Charles Punch

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Smoking Bishop

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St. Charles Punch

Smoking Bishop

Smoking Bishop

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