Smoking Bishop

Recipe by Anna Gill

SMOKING BISHOP CIRCA 2013
Serves: 6

2 unpeeled sweet oranges, Seville if possible
1 small unpeeled lemon
15 to 20 whole cloves
1 very generous ½ cup sugar
1 bottle hearty red wine
2 star anise
1 stick cinnamon
1½ cup of ruby port

FOR THE OLD VERSION
Make several incisions in the rind of a lemon,* stick cloves in these, and roast the lemon by a slow fire. Put small but equal quantities of cinnamon, cloves, mace, and allspice, with a race of ginger, into a saucepan with half a pint of water: let it boil until it is reduced one half. Boil one bottle of port wine, burn a portion of the spirit out of it by applying a lighted paper to the saucepan. Put the roasted lemons and spice into the wine; stir it up well, and let it stand near the fire ten minutes. Rub a few knobs of sugar on the rind of a lemon, put the sugar into a bowl or jug, with the juice of half a lemon (not roasted), pour the wine into it, grate in some nutmeg, sweeten it to your taste, and serve it up with the lemon and spice floating in it.”

* A Seville orange stuck with cloves, to many tastes imparts a finer flavour than the lemon. 

-Elizabeth Acton
Modern Cookery, 1845

SMOKING BISHOP CIRCA 2013
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees..
2. Wash and dry the whole fruit.
3. Roast the fruit, turning once, until it is a pale brown.
4. Let the fruit cool until it can be handled, then stud each fruit with 5 to 6 cloves each.
5.Place studded fruit, sugar, red wine, and spices in a large enameled pot and bring just to the point of a boil. Remove from heat and store in a warm place for 24 hours.
6. Half an hour before serving, remove the fruit and slice thinly and then in half. Return the fruit to the mixture.
7. Add the port to the mixture and warm thoroughly without boiling.
8. Serve in warm glasses or cups.