From Rosengarth Snow to Illinois Moonlight: The Glühwein & Kinderpunsch Recipes

From Rosengarth Snow to Illinois Moonlight:

The Glühwein & Kinderpunsch Recipes

9 December 1908 Berta is ten years old.

The kitchen is low and warm, the brick stove glowing like a small mountain of fire. Snow taps softly at the tiny window panes. The ceiling is already hung with the first strings of Lebkuchen stars; Franz (almost seven) is asleep on the bench with flour on his nose.

Mutti lifts Berta onto the footstool so she can reach the stove height.

“Watch closely, Bertchen. Tonight you learn the two Christmas drinks, one for the grown-ups, one for the children. They are older than the church bells.”

She sets two enamel pots side by side on the hot plate.

Pot 1 – the grown-ups’ pot Mutti pours two bottles of dark red wine from the stone jug the cooper in Jonkowo filled last week. She lets Berta drop in the whole orange that has been studded with exactly eight cloves (Berta counts them twice). Then the lemon peel, cinnamon sticks, crushed cardamom, star anise, ginger, and the split vanilla bean. Sugar goes in last (a big handful that makes Berta’s eyes widen). The pot is pushed to the edge of the stove, never allowed to boil, just to tremble and breathe out clouds of cinnamon steam.

Pot 2 – the children’s pot Into this one goes cloudy apple juice pressed from the cellar apples, strong black tea from the blue tin, the same spices, but the orange gets ten cloves because children like it sweeter. Berta is allowed to halve the little apple herself and drop in a whole handful of raisins that swell like tiny brown lanterns.

Mutti stirs both pots with the same long wooden spoon and says,

“Remember three things, Kindchen:

• Eight cloves for the wine, ten for the juice.
• Never let it boil, or Christmas flies away.
• Always leave one raisin in the bottom of every cup (that one belongs to the Christkind).”

Then she ladles a small cup of the children’s drink for Berta and one for Franz (who has magically woken up). They hold the hot cups with both mittened hands while Mutti tastes the grown-ups’ pot, adds a tiny splash of dark rum from the stone bottle, and nods with satisfaction.

“Next year you will do it alone,” she tells Berta. “This is how we keep Christmas alive, even when we are far away.”

Berta, cheeks glowing from steam and pride, promises she will never forget.

Eight cloves. Ten cloves. Never a boil. One raisin for the Christkind.

Berta’s American Cabin Versions from Traditional Recipes

Ermländer Glühwein – Illinois Cabin Style (with alcohol)

• 2 bottles cheap dry red wine (Gallo Hearty Burgundy or whatever’s $1.49 this week)
• 1 cup water
• ⅔ cup white sugar
• 1 whole orange, washed and studded with 8 whole cloves
• Zest of 1 lemon (yellow part only)
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 4 cardamom pods, lightly crushed with the back of a knife
• 1 star anise
• 1 thin slice fresh ginger (or ¼ tsp ground ginger in a pinch)
• 1 vanilla bean, split (or 1 tsp real vanilla extract added at the end)
• ¼ cup dark rum or brandy (Christian Brothers brandy is what she keeps)

Method same as always: simmer spices, sugar, water 10 min → add wine → heat until steam rises but never boils → pull off heat, add rum/brandy, cover 10 min, serve.

Warmer Weihnachtssaft – American Cabin Style (alcohol-free)

• 2 quarts cloudy apple cider (Alfred presses it or she buys Indian Summer brand)
• 2 cups strong black tea (Lipton bags are fine; she uses 4 bags)
• ¾–1 cup white sugar (to taste)
• 1 whole orange studded with 10 cloves
• 1 small apple, halved
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 5 cardamom pods, crushed
• 2 star anise
• 4 slices fresh ginger (or ½ tsp ground)
• Zest of ½ lemon
• 1 vanilla bean, split (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
• Big handful raisins + a few dried apple slices

Heat everything gently on the edge of the wood stove until tiny bubbles form around the rim (never boil), let steep 15 minutes, ladle into mugs with a raisin and a piece of clove-orange in each.

Same two enamel pots, same eight-clove and ten-clove rule, same promise to Mutti made in 1908. Only the labels on the bottles changed when the ocean got in the way

Author's/Artist's Note: I am disabled survivor using assistive technology, which changes day by day pending health - (#zebralife). -to allow me to create, based on my needs on any given day - Art Therapy. We all can find ways.