When the cold winter nights start, there seems to be no better recipe to warm you up than sweetened and spiced mulled wine.
Mulled wine, or if you want to call it by its medieval name – hypocras (or ypocras) – is often referred to as the oldest hot drink of Europe. Its history goes back to the Ancient Greeks.
Ypocras was named after the Greek physician and father of medicine Hippocrates, who believed in treating the whole body. Usually, it was taken at the end of a meal to help digestion. The spices to be added to mulled wine were filtered through a jelly bag known to apothecaries as a manicum hippocraticum – the sleeve of Hippocrates.
Ypocras was essentially hot, sweetened red wine with the addition of citrus fruits. Ancient Greeks believed wine could also be improved by adding raisins, herbs, and warming spices such as cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg – and ypocras remains as an example of this practice.
The grape juice before fermentation – must, or moustos in Greek – was also discovered by Ancient Greeks, as a way to add natural sweetness to the wine. In Ancient Greece, grape must was commonly used, along with honey. Both Greeks and Romans used grape must and its boiled syrup to sweeten their dishes.
However, the practice of using moustos doesn’t end with mulled wine.
As old as the vine itself, the unfermented juice of the grape has been used in Greek cuisine in several variations.
The juice was distinguished by the degree to which it was concentrated – gleukos, hepsema, hepsetos and siraion were all types of concentrated grape must.
In Greek cuisine, before it becomes wine, the must finds its extensive usage in both traditional bread recipes and various types of sweets – spoon sweets, grape-must cookies, or moustokouloura, grape must pudding, or moustalevria, with many local specialties like petimezi (grape syrup) and petimezopita to follow.
A molasses-like grape syrup, petimezi has been known since ancient times, when it was used like maple syrup.
This specialty from the island of Crete is one of the most ancient recipes known today, with recipes for petimezi dating back to the Bronze Age. Petimezi gives a unique flavour to a traditional spice cake, petimezopita, which is often characterised as a cross between carrot cake and gingerbread.
Petimezi was also used during times of war as a high-calorie way to generate body heat.
In Greece, large quantities of moustos are made during the September grape harvest. The great thing about moustos is that it freezes well and can be stored throughout the year.
It can be used as a delicious sweet in combination with ricotta cheese, or mixed with tahini as a spread on bread for a light meal.
In Limnos, fresh homemade pasta is boiled in grape must and served up as a winter dessert. In Tinos and Roumeli, trays of moustalevria are left to dry in the sun and then covered with cinnamon and sesame.
If you find yourself in Greece this summer, look for mousto balsamic, a balsamic vinegar that combines the sweetness of grapes with spices to deliver a dynamic and rich taste.
Unlike many balsamic vinegars, to which cane sugar is added, mousto balsamic is enhanced only with petimezi, to give the vinegar a fruity sweetness. Mousto balsamic is usually aged in oak barrels for six years to further enrich its flavour.
Best spices to add to mulled wine:
– Cinnamon
– Citrus (mandarin, orange rind)
– Cloves
– Nutmeg
– Brown sugar