I found this section on 'Wassail Bowl' in Dorothy Hartley's seminal book 'Food in England'. "Wassail bowl varies with every household. The following is the recipe of 1722 of Sir Watkin Williams Wynne. Take 1 lb of brown sugar, 1 pint of hot beer, a grated nutmeg, and a large lump of preserved ginger root cut up. Add 4 glasses of sherry, and stir well. When cold, dilute with 5 pints of cold beer, spread suspension of yeast on to hot slices of toasted brown bread, and let it stand covered for several hours. Bottle off and seal down, and in a few days it should be bursting the corks, when it should be poured out into the wassail bowl, and served with hot, roasted apples floated in it. Note: A 'wassail bowl' is NOT a 'punch bowl'." Apart from the fact that I don't fully understand where the toast goes, I can't stand soggy toast! Regards - Judith Gibbons Coventry, UK