Strong of aroma and hot and pungent in taste, cloves are used to flavour many foods, particularly meats and bakery products; in Europe and the United States the spice is a characteristic flavouring in Christmas holiday fare, such as wassail and mincemeat.
Its spiced fruitiness would have come from whole oranges studded with cloves, roasted and then added to the pot (as here in the wassail recipe).
For others, with no intention of either attending a church service or hearing one broadcast, Christmas carols are nonetheless spun through the fabric of the season, with partridges and pear trees peppered over Christmas cards and advertisements, ad hoc choirs fundraising in shopping centres, or a boozy singalong dip into the lexicon of ding dong, wassail and in dulci jubilo.
Things don't get much more Christmassy than a wassail that is – and with its floating toasts, literally was – a toast to health, happiness and prosperity for all who share in it.
Traditionally, the wassail in its bowl would have pieces of crisped, maybe spiced, toast floating in it and this is why we still make a "toast" to celebrate.
Cut each slice of toast into three across and serve in or alongside the wassail.
Judging from the pictures I've seen, the wassail at Ormiston Mansion looks like a scene lifted from Charles Dickens.
Also on the program were spirited renditions of a traditional Cornish wassail song; "Star in the East," a 19th-century American folk hymn; and a harmonically pungent arrangement of John Tavener's song "The Lamb".
What sparked my interest was the unusual wassail I sampled last winter at the Drink, a cozy bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
I had a couple cross-country ski three times over the Williamsburg Bridge from the Lower East Side for some wassail.
For wassail topped with bread, and with floating crab apples.
