Feuerzangenbowle (German Wine Punch)
Photo: Oliver Merkel, [email protected], CC BY-SA 3.0
Feuerzangenbowle is a German mulled red wine finished with a flaming cone of sugar, and the name means fire-tongs punch. Rum is poured over the sugar loaf and lit, and the caramelised drips fall into the hot wine, giving a deeper, toasted sweetness than stirring in sugar. It is a Christmas and New Year tradition, and the burning sugar makes it a table spectacle as well as a drink.
Instructions
Pour the wine into a feuerzangenbowle bowl and heat it to about 70 °C. A big pot on a normal stove works if you have no special bowl.
Wash the oranges and lemons with hot water. Peel them in thin strips and add the peel to the hot wine along with the cinnamon, cloves and gingerbread spices.
Set the feuerzange, or a grate, across the top of the bowl and rest the zuckerhut on it. If you cannot find a zuckerhut, use sugar cubes.
Fill a soup ladle with rum and pour it slowly over the sugar. Light the sugar carefully and keep drunk guests away from the flame.
When the flame dies down, ladle on more rum, pouring very slowly so the flame does not reach your hand. Repeat until the sugar has completely melted into the wine.
Remove the feuerzange and stir in one more ladle of rum that has not been lit. Lift out the orange and lemon peel, cloves and cinnamon stick, then serve the punch hot.
Make it personal.
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![Oliver Merkel, [email protected]](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Feuerzangenbowle01.jpg){kind=link}