Mulled Wine with Pears

THE LONG, STORIED HISTORY OF MULLED WINE by Nick Hines “Good Housewife’s Jewel” by British author Thomas Dawson in 1596 (h/t “British Food History”): “Take a gallon of white wine, sugar two pounds, of cinnamon, ginger, long pepper, mace not bruised galingall …and cloves not bruised. You must bruise every kind of spice a little and put them in an earthen pot all day. And then cast them through your bags two times or more as you see cause. And so drink it.” Mulled Wine by wiki Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management at paragraph 1961 on page 929 to 930 of the revised edition dated 1869: TO MULL WINE. INGREDIENTS.- To every pint of wine allow 1 large cupful of water, sugar and spice to taste. "In making preparations like the above, it is very difficult to give the exact proportions of ingredients like sugar and spice, as what quantity might suit one person would be to another quite distasteful. Boil the spice in the water until the flavour is extracted, then add the wine and sugar, and bring the whole to the boiling-point, then serve with strips of crisp dry toast, or with biscuits. The spices usually used for mulled wine are cloves, grated nutmeg, and cinnamon or mace. Any kind of wine may be mulled, but port and claret are those usually selected for the purpose; and the latter requires a very large proportion of sugar. The vessel that the wine is boiled in must be delicately cleaned, and should be kept exclusively for the purpose. Small tin warmers may be purchased for a trifle, which are more suitable than saucepans, as, if the latter are not scrupulously clean; they spoil the wine, by imparting to it a very disagreeable flavour. These warmers should be used for no other purpose."