#richard cook

[timetraveltasting]

LAMBS WOOL WASSAIL (1847)

"Here we come a-wassailing among the leaves so green!" - I have always loved this traditional Christmas carol, so when I saw that Max Miller made Lambs Wool Wassail, the beer-based version of the drink, for Tasting History (or rather, Drinking History), I just had to make it! As my last historical dish before going on Christmas vacation (I'm writing this from a ryokan near Mt. Fuji, Japan!), I really wanted it to be a Christmastime concoction. Wassail is a word that can mean many things: it was originally a salutation, then became a type of song, a toast, a tradition to encourage a good harvest, a party, a drunken fight, or the tradition of going door to door to either ask for drinks or carol, depending on the time period. The word 'wassail' comes from the Saxon, 'Waes Hael', which means 'Good Health'. It was a toast commonly associated with the new year. Still practiced today in the West of England, wassailing occurred on Twelfth Night (January 5) to wake the fruit trees from their winter slumber through song. It is this tradition that gives wassail its many meanings, be that drink, caroling, or a drunken party. Due to time constraints, my wassailing was a little on the tame side, but I hope to hold a proper wassailing celebration next year with a cider-based version of the drink with all of my friends, since those fruit trees need waking. See you in the new year, and Was Hael! See Max’s video on how to make it here or see the ingredients and process at the end of this post, sourced from his website.

My experience making it:

I adjusted Max's version of this recipe slightly: I omitted the toast portion completely for lack of bread in the house, and I did, in fact, strain the drink (he did not do this, but he recommended doing it to take out the chunks, which are not a nice texture). For the apples, I used Granny Smith, and for the beer, I used Duckstein Winterbier, which is a brown beer with some Christmas-like spiced notes. I used powdered ginger, also.

I first preheated the oven. I didn't have an apple corer, so I decided to use an apple slicer. This was a mistake, as now the apples were in slices, and as a result, they lost a lot of moisture in the oven. I took them out and se-skinned them, to some avail, then tried my best to mash them into an applesauce consistency, but there was not really enough moisture for this. At this point, I decided to put the apple mixture through a strainer to get out the larger chunks and create a very fine applesauce, which even after straining, was still not very saucy. I then heated the beer on the stove, and once it was hot enough, added the strained apple mixture in. Luckily, the particles were small enough that they didn't float around too much and dissolved well. I also stirred in the ginger and nutmeg. After simmering it on the stove a short while, it looked hot enough to serve. I ladled the wassail out into some ceramic cups for my husband and I to enjoy on a cold night.

My experience tasting it:

After waiting for it to cool down a little as to not burn our tongues, my husband and I took a sip. It tasted a bit Christmas-y, with the nutmeg and ginger, but also a bit bitter from the dark beer. We could hardly taste the apple, but did feel the particles in there texture-wise. Since I'm not a big fan of ginger, and that was the primary flavour we could taste, I was not a big fan, even though I wanted so much to like this! It was just... okay. Next time, I hope to make an apple cider-based version, hopefully with less ginger, to have with friends. If you end up making it, if you liked it, or if you changed anything from the original recipe, do let me know!

Lambs Wool Wassail original recipe (1847)

Sourced from Oxford Night Caps: A Collection of Receipts for Making Various Beverages Used in the University by Richard Cook (1847).

Mix the pulp of half a dozen roasted apples with some raw sugar, a grated nutmeg, and a small quantity of ginger. Add one quart of strong ale made moderately warm. Stir the whole well together, and, if sweet enough, it is fit for use. This mixture is sometimes served up in a bowl, with sweet cakes floating in it.

Modern Recipe

Based on Oxford Night Caps: A Collection of Receipts for Making Various Beverages Used in the University by Richard Cook (1847) and Max Miller’s version in his Tasting History video.

Ingredients:

6 tart apples

1 quart (1 L) ale, I used Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown Ale

1/2 cup (105 g) brown sugar, more or less to taste

2 tsp grated nutmeg (or 1 whole nutmeg, grated)

2 tsp grated fresh ginger, or 1 1/2 tsp dried ginger

White toast or little yeasted cakes, optional

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Core the apples and set them on a lined baking sheet, then bake them for 45 minutes.

Remove the skins from the roasted apples (this should be easy to do). Mash the apple as fine as you can.

Mix in the brown sugar, nutmeg, and ginger.

Heat the ale over low heat just until it is steaming, you don’t want it to boil.

Stir the apple mixture into the steaming ale and continue to cook over low heat for 5 minutes, making sure that it doesn’t boil.

For extra authenticity, break out your giant wooden bowl (preferably made of white oak or white maple) or 10-gallon silver gilt bowl, place a piece of white toast or little yeasted cakes in it before pouring in the wassail, and serve it forth. Alternatively, whatever bowl you have will do. Was hael!

[mistressofthemacabresworld]

[bohemian-nights]

Lt. Alexander Jefferson✈️

Masters of the Air Part Nine

[rcbertleckie]

HBO WWII REWATCH week five · tuskegee airmen

[que3rduckling]

Hey ever think about how Nightwing is Batman’s greatest success and how Dick Grayson is Bruce Wayne worst failure? About how crazy that is? No? Just me? Okay…

[tortured-poet-of-thursday]

it’s all fun and games until it’s christmas and wreaths are EVERYWHERE and they all remind you of Neil Perry and you’re crying in the middle of the store

[todelve-intomy-monthlyfixations]

Exam is in 2 hours, I dont know anything and yet im more concerned about why the batfamily fic I've been reading hasn't been updated yet...

UPDATE: the exam cooked me.

[majestativa]

He said to her: “I adore you, You’re the oasis of my soul.”

— Tristan Corbière, Oysters, Nightingales and Cooking Pots: Selected Poetry & Prose, transl by Richard Hibbitt & Katherine Lunn-Rockliffe, (2018)

[arcticmonkeyoftheday]

arctic monkeys and miles kane at olympià, paris, 2012.

[twistedsmilehd]

also been in payday brainrot…….. I heard the third game got a killer update. It’s actually somewhat decent now? I guess I’ll have to re-download it. 

As always, please don’t repost without permission!<3

[haveyouseenthismovie-poll]

[marimayscarlett]

A very nice post by wir.sehen.euch//rammwiki:

30 YEARS OF RAMMSTEIN - 2014: When the MIG era came to a close after the 2013 tour leg, Rammstein took another break. For Richard Kruspe, that meant post-tour depression, which made him start writing more music for his side project Emigrate.

«I just came out of a Rammstein tour and I was really down», the guitarist said to Ultimate Guitar. «So I’m constantly writing and I remember about two and a half years ago I was going through the folder of all the stuff I had written and it got quite inspired and it brought me out of the mood I was in.»

Kruspe brought his Emigrate family together, and the band recorded their second album, Silent So Long. For Richard, that was a very different experience compared to being in the studio with Rammstein.

«I love Rammstein and the way we work is the only way it works and I understand that. But especially being in Emigrate and realizing what kind of person I am, I like to be the one who is in control and has the last say on things. It makes me a better team player at the end of the day. Rammstein is so democratic and often decisions are being made because of the egos, not because of the music and I don’t have that in Emigrate. It makes the studio experience so much more pleasurable in Emigrate than in Rammstein. But there is a responsibility that we have, being in a band like Rammstein.»

The guitarist did reveal that Rammstein had met up in Till Lindemann’s village to check up on each other, even though no plans came out of it. «Till was cooking all the time. We had a lot of meat. It was really about sitting, eating and talking. We didn’t play any instruments - not even a drum beat, nothing. We were just talking», Kruspe told Kerrang. «In Rammstein, we talk a lot. It’s the biggest therapy that I’ve been through. I learned a lot about myself, but now it’s time to move on…»

📷: Bryan Adams, Alexander Gnädinger 2014, Emigrate 2014

[bohemian-nights]

MASTERS OF THE AIR PART EIGHT

[vertigoartgore]

The Fantastic Four by Darwyn Cooke (1962-2016).

[alexturner2005]

"Recently, I went to see the [Arctic] Monkeys when they played in Sheffield and they all texted me individually to ask if I was coming to see the gig. All of them. There was no management or anything. I thought, ‘Well, I’ll go along and maybe there’ll be a guest area’. They got me a fucking car, man. They drove me straight into the dressing room area next to the tour buses and within five minutes we were having a beer and a joke. They haven’t changed. All that massive success they’ve had, their level of success is up there with Joe’s [Cocker], it’s huge and I can reliably inform you that they’re not arseholes. They’ve not changed and it’s beautiful to see. And it means I’m right as well! It’s not some kind of myth about this Sheffield idyll that Hawley has invented, it’s true. That level of success they’ve had, not only can it mess with your head, but it can destroy you as a human being. There are examples of that in similar bands where people are gargantuan arseholes. Again, I’m not naming any names, but you see it all of the time. Like I said, if you’re going to turn into a fucking balloon, make sure you’ve got someone to hold that string."

Richard Hawley talking about Arctic Monkeys in The New Cue, published Oct 23, 2023

[iamdieterbravo]

i love ANNIHILATION!!!!!!!!!!