Feuerzangenbowle (Flaming wine punch)

Ingredients [metric]

• 2 bottles red wine
• 1 lemon, washed, juiced and strained
• 1 orange, washed, juiced and strained
• 8 whole cloves
• Either:
• 7 oz sugar cubes
• 1 Zuckerhut
• Either:
• 1 c high-proof rum, e.g. Bacardi 151
• 1 c other high-proof liquor

Directions

Combine the wine, citrus juices and cloves in a crock pot or fireproof pot. Heat until steaming, but not boiling or simmering. In a crock pot, this will take 30 to 45 minutes on high to heat.

Place the sugar cubes or Zuckerhut on the grate. Soak the sugar in the rum as thoroughly as possible, using at least 60 ml of liquor, up to 120 ml if you can. Put the grate over the wine, double-check that nothing is over or nearby, and light the sugar on fire this should require only one match.

If the sugar is soaked well, you should get very tall, very hot flame, one that will, at least, melt the plastic cover over the light in your range hood.

The flame will melt the sugar so that it drips into the wine below. The wine will flare. As the flame dies down, you can carefully ladle a couple tablespoons of rum over the sugar to keep it melting. Don't be surprised when you find yourself holding a ladle-ful of blue flame. If you've melted your range hood already, your husband will probably argue that you do not need to melt all the sugar. Most of the German recipes I read called for an entire bottle of rum to be ladled on the sugar (do not pour from the bottle I have friends who set an azalea on file pouring a flammable liquid onto a flame).

Once the flaming is over, you can choose to dump the remainder of the unmelted sugar into the wine.