{"id":8084,"date":"2014-01-04T18:20:19","date_gmt":"2014-01-04T17:20:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coquinaria.nl\/?p=8084"},"modified":"2019-12-04T20:08:34","modified_gmt":"2019-12-04T19:08:34","slug":"smoking-bishop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coquinaria.nl\/en\/smoking-bishop\/","title":{"rendered":"Smoking bishop"},"content":{"rendered":"

Straight to the recipe<\/small><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Scrooge<\/a>With Seville oranges<\/h2>\n
\n

Today many people have lost all feeling for what food is\u00a0seasonal<\/span>and what is not. Everything is available throughout the year. The bitter or Seville orange is one of the few exceptions. Its season is short, from mid-December to February, and even then this fruit is hard to find (at least, in the Netherlands). If you have found a supplier, buy a great quantity and freeze the oranges you do not use immediately. Or make lots of marmalade.
\nIf you want to freeze Seville oranges, pour water that has just been boiled over them, dry them well, wrap them separately in plastic foil and then store them in a freezing bag.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Bitter oranges<\/h3>\n

The\u00a0bitter orange<\/span>,\u00a0Seville orange<\/strong>\u00a0or\u00a0bigarade<\/strong>\u00a0(Citrus aurantium<\/em>) is not a variety of the sweet orange, but a separate species that stems from the same plant family as\u00a0rue<\/a>, the\u00a0Rutaceae<\/em>. Bitter oranges precede sweet oranges by several centuries in Europe. They were planted on Sicily as early as the eleventh century; sweet oranges were not introduced into Europe before the end of the fifteenth century.<\/p>\n

\"Portrait<\/a>The Anglo-Irish author\u00a0Jonathan Swift<\/a>\u00a0(1667-1745), who also wrote\u00a0Gulliver’s travels<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(1726), describes what one did with oranges in the eighteenth century in his\u00a0Verses Made for Fruit Women<\/a><\/em>. They went in sauce for veal, in brown ale to bring it up to taste, they were roasted and mixed with wine and sugar, and drunk as ‘sweet bishop’:<\/p>\n

Come buy my fine oranges, sauce for your veal,<\/em>
\n And charming, when squeezed in a pot of brown ale;<\/em>
\n Well roasted, with sugar and wine in a cup,<\/em>
\n They’ll make a sweet bishop when gentlefolks sup.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Swift omitted marmalade in the culinary possibilities of (bitter) oranges, but in the eighteenth century preserving bitter oranges as marmalade was already an established practice. Hannah Glasse offers a recipe for\u00a0marmalade<\/span>\u00a0from bitter oranges. Originally however, marmalade was made with quinces (the Portuguese word for ‘quince’ is\u00a0marmelo<\/em>). C. Anne Wilson has written a beautiful study on the subject of marmalade (see bibliography<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Apician morsels; or Tales of the Table, Kitchen and Larder<\/em><\/h3>\n

The recipe on this page comes from a booklet that appeared in 1829 with the pedantic title\u00a0Apician morsels; or Tales of the Table, Kitchen and Larder<\/em>. The anonymous author uses the pseudonym Dick\u00a0Humelbergius<\/span>\u00a0Secundus. The book is for the largest part a compilation of (translated) texts of other writers. It is not certain who is hiding behind the pseudonym, but Denise Gigante presents two candidates in her florilegium of nineteenth-century writers on gastronomy (Gusto<\/em>):\u00a0William Beckford<\/a>\u00a0and, Gigante’s own favourite,\u00a0Richard Chenevix<\/a>.\u00a0Apician Morsels<\/em>\u00a0is a compilation of essays, not a cookery book. However, in one of the last chapters, ‘Compensations. — Consolations and Obligations’, we find a ‘collection of gourmand recipes’ for the many warm, spiced drinks that the English love so much. The first recipe is for\u00a0Bishop<\/em>, other recipes are for\u00a0Posset<\/em>,\u00a0Punch<\/em>,\u00a0Swig<\/em>,\u00a0Wassail<\/em>, and several\u00a0Cordials<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The original bishop<\/h3>\n

Warm spiced bishop wine is a popular drink (for adults, of course) at the Dutch feast of\u00a0Saint Nicholas<\/a>. In the United Kingdom bishop is a popular drink around\u00a0Christmas<\/span>, at least in the second half of the\u00a0nineteenth century<\/span>. At the close of\u00a0Charles Dickens<\/span>‘\u00a0A Christmas Carol<\/em>\u00a0(1846), a jolly Scrooge promises the flabbergasted Bob Cratchit improved working conditions with “a Christmas bowl of smoking bishop” (see the picture at the top). But actually December is very early in the season for Seville oranges.<\/p>\n

Originally, this spiced wine was prepared with roasted oranges or lemons. Maybe this caused the drink to be named\u00a0Bishop<\/em>: in her entertaining book\u00a0Ladyfingers and Nun’s Tummies<\/em>, Martha Barnette states that in the North of England the expression\u00a0to bishop something<\/em>\u00a0means ‘to burn something’ (in this case, the orange or lemon). But the explanation most often mentioned for\u00a0smoke<\/em>\u00a0is the steam rising from the warm wine.<\/p>\n

\"TerrineBishop was also a popular drink on the European continent. In eighteenth-century Germany there even were special serving vessels in the shape of a bishop’s mitre. On the right you see a beautiful example from 1767 (source<\/a>). The oldest Dutch recipes mention ‘gebraaden bittere oranje-appelen’ (roasted bitter oranges, Chomel, 1768), or ‘gele oranjeappelen’ (yellow oranges) that are roasted on a rack (Maria Haezebroek,\u00a0Keukenboek<\/em>, 2nd edition, 1852). The wine is sweetened with sugar or honey, spiced with cinnamon and cloves, and diluted with water. Oranges were expensive, but in the eighteenth century you could already buy ready-made ‘essence of bishop’ to bring wine quickly to taste.
\nMany cookbooks offer recipes for\u00a0Cardinal<\/em>\u00a0(with rhine wine or champagne and maraschino) and even\u00a0Pope<\/em>\u00a0(with sweet wine). A modern, simpler Dutch version can be found\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"TheRoasted Seville orange and lemon<\/h3>\n

In the English recipe on this page, the fruit for\u00a0bishop<\/em>\u00a0is roasted “by the fire”. English cooking ranges in the nineteenth century still had ‘open fire’, with a grate in front that could be lowered. Scrooge and Cratchit are sitting in front of such a range. For the real, authentic taste you should roast the bitter orange or lemon on a barbecue at some distance from the coals.
\nIn the picture on the left is the roasted bitter orange, cut and pierced with cloves, floating in spiced port wine.<\/p>\n

The original recipe<\/h2>\n

This is the recipe from\u00a0Apician morsels; or Tales of the Table, Kitchen and Larder<\/em>\u00a0by Dick Humelbergius Secundus (pseud., 1829) pp.308\/309. (online edition<\/a>). He too ends his recipe with the verses of Swift. A translation does not seem necessary.<\/p>\n

Receipt, or recipe, to make bishop
\nMake several incisions into the rind of a lemon; stick cloves in these incisions, and roast the said lemon by the fire. Put small but equal quantities of cinnamon, mace, cloves, and all-spice, and a\u00a0<\/em>race\u00a0of ginger, into a saucepan, with half a pint of water; let it boil until it be reduced one half. Boil one bottle of port wine; burn a portion of the spirit out of it, by applying a lighted paper to the saucepan which contains it. Put the roasted lemons and spice into the wine; stir it up well, and let it stand near the fire ten minutes. Rub a few nobs of sugar on the rind of a lemon; put the sugar into a bowl or jug, with the juice of half a lemon, (not roasted) pour the wine upon it, sweeten it to your taste, and serve it up with the lemon and spice floating in it.
\nOranges, although not used in bishop, at Oxford, are, as will appear by the following lines, written by Swift, sometimes introduced into that beverage:<\/em><\/p>\n

“Fine oranges,
\nWell roasted, with sugar and wine in a cup,
\nThey’ll make a sweet bishop when gentlefolks sup”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/a>Modern adaptation of the recipe<\/h2>\n

Because I loved to use them, I used ‘Swift’s version’ for the bishop, but lemons are also excellent. The drink really warms you from the inside.\u00a0Smoking bishop<\/em>\u00a0has a subtle taste, more complex than ‘ordinary’ bishop when the oranges are not roasted in advance.
\nFor about\u00a08 glasses<\/span>;\u00a0preparation in advance<\/em>\u00a010 minutes<\/span><\/span>;\u00a0preparation<\/em>\u00a040 minutes<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n

\"The1\u00a0bitter orange<\/span>\u00a0(or lemon)
\njuice of 1\/2 bitter orange (or lemon)
\n150 gr\u00a0(3\/4 cup + 1 Tbsp) sugar<\/span>
\n1\u00a0cinnamon<\/span> stick
\n5\u00a0cloves<\/span><\/a>\u00a0+ extra to stick into the bitter orange
\n5\u00a0all spice<\/a>
\n1 piece\u00a0mace<\/span>
\n1 piece fresh\u00a0ginger<\/span>
\n1 bottle red\u00a0Port wine<\/span> (I used\u00a0Tawny Port<\/em>)
\n2\u00bd dl (1 cup) water<\/p>\n

Preparation in advance<\/h3>\n

Pour boiling water over the Seville orange or lemon to remove the wax layer.
\nCut a decorative pattern in the rind, stick some cloves in the incisions.
\nSqueeze one half Seville orange.<\/p>\n

\"SpicesPreparation<\/h3>\n

Place the Seville orange on an oven shelf in the middle of a warm oven (170 \u00b0C\/340\u00a0\u00b0F) and roast it until the orange has turned a light brown, about thirty minutes.
\nTake an ovenproof pan, pour in water and add spices. Bring to the boil and reduce the water to 1\/8 liter (1\/2 cup). Add Port wine and the still hot Seville orange. Put the lid on and place the pan ten minutes in the oven at 120\u00a0\u00b0C\/250\u00a0\u00b0F.
\nCombine sugar and orange juice in a heatproof bowl, and add the contents of the pan (spices and orange included).<\/p>\n

To serve<\/h3>\n

This drink should be served really hot, so use glasses that are heatproof! As soon as your lips can stand it you can drink the\u00a0Smoking Bishop<\/em>.
\nBecause of the added water and the heating of the wine, this\u00a0Bishop<\/em>\u00a0will contain less alcohol than the Port wine it was made from. But still, be careful because this warm drink can still intoxicate!<\/p>\n

Ingredients<\/h2>\n

All descriptions of ingredients<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>Allspice or Jamaica pepper<\/h4>\n

This is one of the spices that Columbus took to Europe from his second voyage to America (1493-1496). It is called ‘allspice’ because it tastes like a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg and clove. ‘Jamaica pepper’ refers to the original place of origin. The spice is the dried, unripe fruit of the\u00a0Pimenta dioicia<\/em>. Allspice is used in European recipes from the sixteenth century onward.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Bibliography<\/h2>\n

The editions below were used by me. Links refer to available editions.<\/p>\n