11/27/2023 0 Comments Cabin fever whiskey drink recipesIf you prefer to rush matters, place the pods in a dehydrator. When fully dry, the pods will keep almost indefinitely. Incidentally, an easy way to dry cayenne peppers is to pull up the entire plant before the first frost, hang it upside down in a dry, airy place, and let nature take its course. The ideal way to make pepper tea is by growing and drying your own cayenne peppers, although the kind of flakes you can purchase to sprinkle atop pizza or to season soup beans will work perfectly well. Grandpa would make it so sweat beads would pop out on his brow as soon as he took a couple of slurps of the “sassered” tea (he was unwilling to wait until it cooled sufficiently to drink from the cup). Rest assured, it will carry plenty of heat from the pepper as well as the hot water. Pour through a strainer to remove the flakes and serve piping hot. Use red pepper flakes which have just been parched or toasted and then steep them as you would tea. Preparing pepper tea is the essence of simplicity. My Grandpa Joe swore by it both as a sort of “cure all” and as the perfect drink during the depths of winter. A number of them are also being associated with either a holiday season, or are considered a “pick me up” in the folk medicine category. Here’s a solid sampling of traditional cold-weather beverages in the high country. When sipping, many suggest an almost tangible sense of connection with yesteryear. All promise a measure of comfort on a cold winter’s day. The selection ranges quite widely, with such drinks including hearty broths bridging the gap between simple liquid and a cup of soup “herbal” type teas made from spice bush, sassafras roots, or dried and shredded hot peppers cherry bounce, syllabub, golden moonbeam, mulled cider, metheglin, and many more. But there are plenty of non-alcoholic choices as well. Certainly many winter beverages do involve a dram of tanglefoot or a tot of brandy coming from a fine crop of fall apples. Sometimes, with the writings of Horace Kephart in Our Southern Highlanders being a prime example, the matter reaches a point of shameful stereotyping. Obviously, moonshine or liquid corn has long been associated with the southern Appalachians. So, let’s celebrate traditional mountain beverages meant to warm the inner man, lift the spirits, and in some cases, “lighten one’s load.” (The latter is an expression I once heard in connection with enjoying a toddy, and it struck me as an apt and eloquent way of describing a touch of tippling.) The mollygrubs associated with February-my grandfather always maintained it was the shortest month “because a body couldn’t stand any more of it”-bear all too much promise of a chronic case of cabin fever. In its widest sense, writing about food means embracing liquid nourishment and celebratory drinks.
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