Smoking Bishop

By Neil Buttery

The Christmas Bowl

Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a heady, hot boozy snifter and smoking bishop is the best of all, in my opinion; a marvellous mixture of port, roasted oranges and spices, enjoyed by Ebenezer Scrooge and Bob Cratchit in the final scene of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (1843).

The drink is smoking because the oranges – preferably bitter Seville oranges – are roasted until blackened. The drink is a bishop because it is one of several drinks once known as ‘ecclesiasticals’; drinks named after various orders within the Catholic church.

One of the reasons I don’t always like mulled wine is that it can be a little heavy on the spices. A smoking bishop uses fewer spices than mulled wine, and is all the better for it; in fact my recipe uses only one: cloves. The only other aromatics being the oils released from the burnt bitter orange rinds. Aside from that, just a little water and some dark brown sugar are added to taste.

It’s a delicious and easy drink to make, and you will never go back to mulled red wine once you’ve tried it, so please give it a go; you won’t be disappointed!

Smoking bishop can be made ahead of time, strained, and reheated with great success.

Ingredients

• One 750 ml bottle of port

• 3 oranges (Seville, if possible)

• 8 cloves

• 250ml water

• Dark brown sugar to taste

1. Place the oranges on a tray and bake at 200°C for around 25 minutes until they have started to blacken and give off their delicious burnt aroma. Remove from the oven and allow to cool a little before slicing them up.

2. Next, pour the full bottle of port into a saucepan (very satisfying to do) along with the oranges and any orange juicy bits, as well as the cloves and water.

3. Bring to a bare simmer – don’t let it boil! – and let it gently tick away at a scalding temperature (around 80°C) for around 20 minutes.

4. Add sugar to taste – if the oranges are very bitter and black, you might need quite a bit. If you don’t want bits of orange pulp and clove floating about in the drink, strain into a clean pan before adding the sugar, then simply ladle straight from the saucepan into punch glasses or small mugs.