Too close for comfort

I quite like master stock and the lovely aromats that go into it. We have a number of chicken and duck dishes that use master stock so it can get a bit of a work out in our house. In case you are interested, my 'secret' recipe is basically a blend of a few that I found on the 'net.

Now, the weather is getting chilly and so warm drinks are favoured over cold, especially in the evening. A few day ago I thought I'd make some mulled wine and a quick google search gave me plenty of options. Jamie Oliver had what looked like a particularly tasty drop so I made a small batch of that, minus the star anise because I just couldn't find it any where.

It was good, but definitely lacked brandy.

Of course I thought the brandy would just improve it, so the next night I made the same recipe with the addition of the brandy and star anise.

The flavours were good, but it took me a bit to finally put my finger on what in particular it was that was so interesting about this drink.

Hmmm, what is in it? Star anise, cloves, cinnamon, citrus peel... All of those are in both my master stock and mulled wine. They also both have wine (shao xing/ red). Now I'm not about to start adding soy sauce, garlic and ginger to my mulled wine, or sugar and brandy to my master stock, but the similarities were perhaps a little too close for comfort.

It was worth trying something new but given I'm quite happy with the master stock blend, we'll need to go with a different mulled wine recipe in the future!