Smoking Bishop Tweetcipe

A number of years ago I attempted to cook a full semi-accurate Victorian Christmas meal. I couldn’t find a goose in all of Galveston so I cooked a traditional American turkey to go with Waldorf celery boats, savory tartlets, green peas, potatoes á la maitre d’hôtel, mincemeat pie and sugar plums. My family and I also drank a number of cups of Smoking Bishop over the course of the day. The drink is mentioned in “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens, and interestingly, the recipe has been around since the 1600s – long before Charles wrote his now famous Christmas story. It’s such a good cold weather drink; it shouldn’t be limited to just the holidays.

From Historical Foods Newsletter:

Smoking Bishop

6 large oranges
2 large lemons
½ cup of brown sugar (demerara)
1 bottle (750ml) red wine
1 bottle (750ml) ruby port
8 whole cloves
3 cinnamon sticks
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground mace

The day before: bake the large oranges and lemons in the oven on a shallow baking tray (with a lip to contain any leaking juice) on a low heat at 120°C until they are pale brown (after about an hour and a half). If any liquid leaks from the fruit when baking pour this from the tray into the bowl with the fruit and wine.

After the fruit has baked in the oven stud the oranges and lemons with one of the cloves pricked into each, place into a large bowl, add the ground ginger, cinnamon, allspice, and mace. Add the sugar and pour in the wine – but not the port or the cinnamon sticks. Stir gently for a few minutes. Cover and leave in a warm place overnight or for 24 hours.

The next day: cut the baked oranges and lemons in half and squeeze all the juice into the spiced wine in the bowl. Do not worry about adding in the pulp and pips; this will be strained through a sieve next.

Pour this wine, fruit and spice mix through a sieve into a large saucepan, using the back of a spoon to press out the juice from the pulp in the sieve. Then add the cinnamon sticks. Heat the wine to a high simmer for 5 minutes, then turn down the heat under the saucepan and add the port. Heat the liquid very gently for 20 minutes (so as not to boil away the alcohol). In the last two minutes turn up the heat to a medium simmer and get the Bishop ‘smoking’ hot with vapors rising.