“Here We Come, A Wassailing”

What does “Wassailing” mean? It is sung throughout the season, but few people know what it means.  

Wassailing though usually thought of as being something akin to carol singing, is actually a set of customs going back more than 500 years in which groups of villagers wished health to the crops and animals of their neighbors as well as to the people of the village themselves.  

The most common form of wassailing recorded concerned fruit trees, in particular, apple trees and a true Wassail Cup, the drink carried round by the wassailers, contains apples cooked till they are fluffy and bursting from their skins. Traditionally, the Wassailers walked round the orchards, blessing the trees and asking for good crops and around the farm animals, blessing them and asking for the herds to continue. They then knocked on the door of the house, were admitted by the youngest woman in the household and then drank the health of all those in the house with the Wassail Cup they had brought with them in the wassail bowl.  (usually wooden ).

The drink was a liquor made with ale, spirits, sugar, eggs and spices....and full of roasted apples bursting in the steaming cup.  It was often the custom to float a piece of bread on top - hence, our expression "to propose a toast". 
 

 Research done on the internet yielded a recipe for a 17^th century wassail.
" Boil: 3 pints of ale; - beat six eggs, the whites and the yolks together; set both to the fire in a pewter pot; add roasted apples, sugar, beaten nutmegs, cloves and ginger; and, being well brewed, drink it while hot "  ( from the Royal Household of 1633 )

A  punch bowl has long since been the centerpiece of modern Christmas parties. Here is a modern wassail recipe that will appeal to guests of all ages:  

1 gallon apple cider ( add about 4oz sugar if it's very dry ) 

12 small apples peeled and cored
1/8  teaspoon ground nutmeg      

16 fl oz whipping cream
1/4  teaspoon ground cinnamon                                                            

1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2  teaspoon ground ginger

2 tablespoons brown sugar

Slowly heat 3/4 of the cider till warm, but not boiling. Put remaining cider in another pan with the apples, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger and bring it to the boil. Simmer vigorously until the apples lose their shape and become ' frothy '. Combine the two liquids and pour into a heatproof bowl. Whip the cream with the salt and brown sugar until it peaks and spoon it onto the wassail or add some cream to each drink as it's served. Drink Hot.

Originally published in print paper, Sebasticook Valley Weekly