SWEDISH GLOGG

“Serve in heated mugs or small glasses with a few almonds and seedless raisins in each.”—The New York Times Cook Book by Craig Claiborne (1961)

About 20 punch cup servings

¾ C water, plus more
3 cardamom seeds
8 whole cloves
2 Tbsp grated orange peel
¼ C blanched almonds
½ C seedless raisins
1 C prunes
1 bottle (24 oz) red Bordeaux wine
1 bottle (24 oz) port
1¾ C vodka
Sugar to taste (optional)

Tie together cardamom seeds, while cloves, and orange peel in a cheesecloth bag, and bring ¾ C water to boil with spice bag added, then cover and simmer 10 minutes. Add almonds, raisins, prunes, and enough additional water to cover fruit, cover, and simmer 20 minutes more. Add wine, port, and vodka, bring to a boil, remove immediately from flame, cool, and allow to stand covered in refrigerator overnight or longer. When ready to serve, remove spice bag, reheat punch, and add sugar to taste.

“Portland was home base for several weeks while I made side trips here and there around the state and went visiting in the country. It was in Tigard, ten miles out of the city, I spent a day in Nana’s kitchen, a kitchen that laughs out loud. The blue shelves were laughing calico ruffles in gay red and yellow—little kick-skirts decorously jubilant. Blue dishes, yellow dishes in the open cupboard, painted woodenware on the walls. Here was a bit of Old Sweden in the Northwest.

Nana’s kitchen and dining room opened wide, one to the other. No door closed the kitchen away from the living room. Guests in this house never stay put—they tag Nana around to watch while she cooks.
Nana, born in Filipstad, Sweden, came to America at the age of ten. Now her name is Mrs. Wesley C. Heise and her friends call her Nan. Her menus are American except when it’s Christmas and except for those certain year-around dishes that a Swedish palate demands.

Then supper is spread on the round dining-room table. It’s smorgasbord, a Swedish holiday specialty. First the glugg, steaming and spiritous. Every last guest has “skal’d” with the hosts. The smorgasbord, the groaning-with-pleasure board. See what I see? The pickled ham, the spareribs and potato sausage, these three meats a part of a ritual dish called Dunk-in-the-Kettle. There are flatbreads and a homemade rye loaf. Nan’s pickled herring is there and a rolled sausage called Rulkorv, and Kaly Sylta, this last jellied veal, and delicious.

Dessert is rice porridge, Risgrynsgrot. I spelled it—you can pronounce it.

Dunk-in-the-Kettle starts with half a fresh ham, this soaked in salt brine two days before preparation, then cooked in fresh water, just enough to cover, simmered slowly 3 to 4 hours. Fresh spareribs are added after the ham has cooked for 1½ hours, then the potato sausage goes in, this a homemade creation added the last hour of cooking. The meats are removed to one big platter, the sausage and ham sliced, the spareribs divided.

The entire ritual is the important thing. Guests take a slice of Swedish rye bread on a fork and with plate in hand go to the kitchen to dunk the bread in the hot stock in which the meats simmered. Bread on the plate, back to the table to load up with the meats and other good things.”

—Clementine Paddleford, How America Eats (1960)

NANA HEISE’S HOLIDAY GLUGG

Yield: 4 quarts glugg

1½ lb seedless raisins
3 C (about) water, maybe more
1½ C sugar
1 Tbsp broken cinnamon stick
1 Tbsp whole cloves
2 dozen cardamom seeds
1 gallon red Burgundy wine
1 quart brandy or bourbon

Cover raisins with water in a saucepan, add sugar, cinnamon and cloves, crack cardamom seeds and drop in with shells, cover and simmer 2 hours or until raisins swell, adding more water from time to time if necessary. Remove from flame, add wine, bring “almost to a simmer, not quite,” at keep hot “at around 160˚F. for 2 hours.” Cool, leaving spices in brew overnight Drain, squeezing raisins “to get out every last drop of wine,” and pour into bottles until ready to sue. Reheat when ready to serve, adding brandy or bourbon.