While I don’t remember much about my brief trip to Florence from approximately 30 years ago, I do remember how surprised I was by how good the Tuscan fish stew was. The fact that spices like oregano, sage, and rosemary—which I had previously exclusively associated with meat—were also used with seafood struck me as particularly intriguing. Also, FYI in case any old-school Tuscans are coming over: I’ve heard that you need to use at least 5 distinct kinds of seafood in order for this to be considered an actual Italian fish stew, which is both absurd and adorable. Serve alongside crusty bread.
| Prep Time: | 5 mins |
| Cook Time: | 8 hrs |
| Total Time: | 8 hrs 5 mins |
| Servings: | 12 |
| Yield: | 12 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 quarts apple cider
- 2 cups orange juice
- ½ cup lemon juice
- 12 whole cloves
- 4 cinnamon sticks
- 1 pinch ground ginger
- 1 pinch ground nutmeg
Instructions
- In a slow-cooker or a large pot over low heat, combine apple cider, orange juice and lemon juice. Season with cloves, ginger and nutmeg. Bring to a simmer. If using a slow cooker, allow to simmer all day. Serve hot.
Reviews
Just followed the directions. Really nice warm winter/Holiday drink for the whole family.
AMAZING!!! Took me back to drinking it with my grandparents! I added a bit of sugar and rum to mine. Also two apples to bring out more of the apple cider since this has a lot of citrus.
I used fresh squeezed lemon juice, kirkland brand orange juice, & honeycrisp apple cider. I also used fresh chopped ginger instead of powdered, & added more than what would be the fresh equivalent. Amazing though! My inlaws absolutely loved it!
I made it and loved it, didn’t change anything but I must share that this is MUCH better the second day! Plus I made it an ‘adult’ beverage per glass instead of making it all ‘adult beverage’ style.
I just made this recipe exactly according to the instructions. It was way too bitter. I will look elsewhere for a wassail recipe.
Simple recipe to follow. My family and I loved it. It was a major sugar rush…one cup limit for me.
If you don’t have time to let it simmer all day, just add a cup of brown sugar to counter the tartness. Garnish with pinch of allspice and it’s 10/10!
I love this recipe! I’ve been making it every year now. However I do add sugar, or Splenda in my case. Although I did debate on using maple syrup. Plus I added time. The recipe calls for 8 hours, but it was way better after sitting longer. I’ve started putting mine on the day before.
Added some cranberries which made it to tart
The apple cider I used is very sweet, so I didn’t get any hint of tartness. I did get a mouth of warmed orange juice and I used 1/2 the amount called for in the recipe and a sliced orange. I have more cider and a couple hours to fiddle with the it.
The mixture of ingredients were very tasty, but it was way too tart! I had to add a lot of honey to tone it down a bit. Even then . . .
I’m in the cast of UT Austin’s 37th Annual Madrigal Dinner, where wassail is something of a tradition, so I tried this recipe, and according to the small bit I was able to have before it was all gone, I think it was pretty excellent. I somewhat heeded the advice of the comment sections below and basically just added 0.5-1 liter more of apple cider to the same volume of the rest of the ingredients, and I didn’t notice it being overbearingly tart or anything. I’m also not sure I got the gist of “let simmer” for some time, but what I did was just put a cover on the pot and let it sit on low-temperature for about 8 hours, and that seemed to diffuse the flavor of the cinnamon+cloves just fine. Anyway, according to my fellow cast-mates, this recipe was definitely a solid 11/10
Sugarless, very good.
I agree with other reviews that there was too much lemon juice, which made it a little too sour. Next time I would half it. Out than that, it smelled amazing all day and the other spices were right on. I will be using this again.
Way too much lemon for my taste. Will cut it in half next time.
We have fixed wassail every year for Christmas, and decided to try this recipe this year. I made it and passed out the cups, and we all decided that something was missing. I added 1/2 cup of honey, and it was perfect. It’s a good basic recipe, but was missing honey, a key ingredient in other wassail recipes.
This is great wassail! Been making it this holiday season and really enjoying it!
excellent winter punch. Made exactly as stated. Great aroma.
We all loved this! It was a little tart, but I would prefer that over it being too sweet. I might try cutting the lemon in half next time, but really loved the flavor! No added sugar which is really a bonus!
Absolutely delicious!
I keep ingredients for this on hand all winter. My husband prefers wassail to hot chocolate, and this is his favorite recipe.