I did a trawl of the web and came up with the following (apparently traditional) recipes for the wassailing drink. I also learned that the drink was called "lamb's wool" because of the frothy appearance of the apple pulp (and cream if used). Recipe One: 1 gallon apple cider 12 small apples (crab apples or lady apples) 1/2 cup sugar, if cider is tart 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg 2 cups heavy whipping cream 1/4 teaspoon powdered cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger or two teaspoons fresh grated ginger 2 tablespoons brown sugar Pierce the apples and bake them in a hot oven until they split. In a large enameled pot, slowly heat 3/4 of the cider, until warm but not boiling. In another enameled pot, pour remaining cider and add the apple, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger and bring to a boil. Combine the two liquids and pour into a heat proof bowl. Whip the cream and brown sugar until it peaks. Spoon the cream onto the wassail, or add the cream to each tankard as it is served. Recipe Two: 6 cooking apples, 2 pints of ale, 3-6 tbs caster sugar and ½ tsp each of ginger and nutmeg. Place the apples in a dish with a little water and bake in a low oven until they are moist and soft. Cut us the apples and place in a large mixing bowl. Heat the ale gently in a saucepan and pour this hot all over the apples. Add the sugar and spices to taste. Leave this in a warm place for 30 minutes. Then strain all this through a sieve back into the saucepan and gently reheat. Serve, being careful to place a spoon into any glasses before pouring in the hot liquid. Alternatively, you can use the above method using 3 quarts of brown ale, 1½ pints of white wine, ½ grated nutmeg. 1 tsp of ginger, 1 cinnamon stick, 4 baked apples and brown sugar. Waes hael....!! Davy Cannon Dorchester, Dorset

With the apples and cider your recipe seems more Dorset than the one I came up with..... "Put into a bowl half a pound of Lisbon sugar; pour on it a pint of warm beer; grate into it a nutmeg and some ginger; add four glasses of sherry and five additionalk pints of beer; stir it well; sweeten it to your taste. Let it stand covered up for two or three hours; then put into it three or four slices of bread cut thin and toasted brown, and it is fit for use. A couple of slices of lemon may be introduced. Bottle the liquor, and in a few days it may be drunk in a state of effervescence." The Year Book of Daily Recreations by William Hone (1832). It sounds more like a time-bomb than a drink, and the'state of effervescence' probably applies to the person brave enough to try it, rather than liquor itself! Geoff