The table of old times,
The Book of Recipes
Mulsum (spiced wine)
Period: Roman Empire / Category: aperitif
Ingredients
for 6 persons :
75 cl of good quality dry red wine (Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Carignan)
125 g of thyme honey
A teaspoon of ground pepper
The preparation
1- Prepare the drink at least a day before so that the aromas can be expressed as best as possible.
2- Pour the wine at room temperature into a wide container, add the honey and mix well with a metal whisk to dissolve it. Then add the ground pepper. Once well mixed, transfer everything into glass or stoneware bottles and leave to rest in the refrigerator for several hours.
3- Serve chilled and stir well with a long cocktail stirrer before pouring into glasses to evenly distribute the pepper.
Annotations
- The original recipe calls for a tablespoon of pepper, but, having tested it, I found that a teaspoon is enough.
- Mulsum was usually served at the start of the Roman dinner ( gustatio ) accompanied by hors d'oeuvres ( promulsis ). There were different production methods and qualities of mulsum. The best mulsum was prepared from must from lightly pressed grapes, harvested in dry weather. One part of honey was added to five parts of must, then mixed carefully before leaving everything to rest in a closed container for at least a month. The mixture was then filtered and allowed to stand again. In addition to being a drink, mulsum was used as a remedy, for example, consumed hot against stomach pains, as a tonic.
