A question for the Germans

Anarcho · Tue 19/09/2006 20:47:57

Hey there,

A couple years ago i attended this party in Berlin where you brought a bunch of wine and heated it up on the stove, then they put this metal slat over the pot of wine, put a big sugar cube on it, poured brandy on it then lit it on fire. it was a really cool drink and party. i guess there's some german movie about this particular ritual.

Does anybody know what I'm talking about...i'm looking for the name of the drink and some place to find out more about it.

Thanks

Logan

DoorKnobHandle · Tue 19/09/2006 21:07:53

Hmm... Are you by any chance talking about "GlÃ¼hwein"?

That's basically heated wine (don't know if you serve it on fire with sugar cubes and brandy, though). Anyways, glad you seemed to have a good time in Berlin back in the day.

Anarcho · Tue 19/09/2006 21:35:01

well, maybe the drink ended up being GlÃ¼hwein, but i thought this was a thing people did that was a bit different. Maybe i'm wrong and it's just a way to make GlÃ¼hwein?

Venus · Tue 19/09/2006 22:05:49

I think you are talking about "Feuerzangenbowle". I've never actually seen it being made or drank in real life, but I saw it in an old German film once.
Maybe this can help: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feuerzangenbowle

Anarcho · Wed 20/09/2006 03:21:28

Yes! That's it. Thank you very much, Venus! We watched that film at the party. The film seemed kinda lame, but the drink was fun to make.

DoorKnobHandle · Wed 20/09/2006 12:10:23

Ah, of course. And the film is far from lame, it's great! One of the best german movies ever, in my opinion.

Anarcho · Wed 20/09/2006 14:14:59

Maybe I couldn't appreciate it because my german sucks. To me, it just seemed like a movie about a bunch of old guys sitting around a bucket that's on fire.

Either way, I'm having a Feuerzangenbowle party come winter. You're all invited!

But can someone ship me a Zuckerhut?

Venus · Wed 20/09/2006 21:43:19

Quote from: Anarcho on Wed 20/09/2006 14:14:59
But can someone ship me a Zuckerhut?

Feuerzangenbowle is not really a tradition in the part of Germany I live in and I didn't even know what a Zuckerhut was until I read the wiki article. I've never seen one in the supermarkets I've been to, but since I never really looked for it, it's not impossible that they have it. I'll have to go shopping tomorrow anyway, so I'll take a look and see what I can do.

EDIT: And I agree to dkh that the film is great

lo_res_man · Wed 20/09/2006 23:32:00

I havn't seen that many german films, but my favorite was Das Boot. The tension was palpable, and I was, and still am facsinated by U-boats

Anarcho · Wed 20/09/2006 23:45:37

why couldn't i just build a pyramid of sugar cubes? is there some need to have it in hat-form?

I feel like i'll be able to find one of these somewhere...i actually found one at a hispanic store but it was brown sugar. i feel like that won't work the same.

Venus · Thu 21/09/2006 21:40:49

I looked at my local store today, but there was no Zuckerhut available. My grandmother told me that the last time she saw one was about 20 years ago. Sorry.

I don't know if normal sugar cubes work. You have to soak them in brandy for quite some time to make sure the fire burns long enough. As far as I know is the brandy you pour over it just a little extra and mainly for show. If you just pour the alcohol over, the fire will burn only for a couple of seconds and you can't repeat it endlessly, since the sugar starts to caramelise pretty fast and the brandy can't get in anymore. The only problems with sugar cubes could be that it might be hard to soak them long enough, since they dissolve pretty quickly. But that's just a guess.

You could simply try and make your own Zuckerhut. Just heat some water, let loads of sugar dissolve and then put a long piece of string in it and wait a couple of days till the sugar has crystallised again. You just have to be carful then that the string doesn't end up in the bowl later

voh · Sat 23/09/2006 00:22:37

When I prepare a glass of absinth, I just pour it over the icecube. It will sometimes burn up to a minute. Is that still too short? Because if it works with absinth, why not with this?