Skip to main content

Warm the Cockles of Your Heart with Krupnik Honey Vodka


Krupnik (pronounced "kroop-neek"), or honey vodka, is a Polish drink that can be served warm or cold and is traditionally imbibed on Easter, Christmas, and other special occasions. It was also used by Polish soldiers in World War II as a medicinal disinfectant; that's how you know it's good. 

Krupnik originated in 1600s in what is now Belarus but what at the time was known as the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The original recipe for the drink is believed to have been created by Benedictine monks at a monastery in Niasviz. And while there is no official documentation of this, I think it’s safe to say that Wojtek, the WWII Soldier Bear who served alongside humans in the Polish 22nd  Artillery Supply Company in the Battle of Monte Cassino, probably found his way into some krupnik at one time or another. Wojtek (pronounced "voy-teck"), whose name means "happy warrior," was known to smoke and eat cigarettes, drink coffee and beer, salute, march, and carry crates of ammunition, after all, so drinking a little krupnik from time to time doesn’t seem like too much of a stretch. You can read more about this amazing bear here.

I had been hoping that this Easter would be a time to celebrate the worst of the pandemic being over, but now we find ourselves once again living in the shadow of war. At least I can take heart in hearing stories like the one that appeared in the Axios email newsletter this week about three Chicago chefs—Paul Kahan of Publican, Tony Priolo of Piccolo Sogno, and Giuseppe Tentori of BOKA—who recently travelled to Poland to cook for Ukrainian war refugees in a World Central Kitchen facility in Przemysl. You can read more about World Central Kitchen and support their cause here.

Back on the home front, we can wish our loved ones a Happy Easter or Happy Spring and share some krupnik with them. Some recipes suggest serving krupnik warm with a pat of butter and even a piece of chocolate. I’ve tried both ways, and they are both delicious. The krupnik recipe on the Great British Chefs website suggests serving krupnik “on chilly nights to warm the cockles.” This is my new favorite phrase. I don’t know about you, but my cockles can use all the warming they can get right about now.

The krupnik recipe I made this year was adapted from the 1976 edition of the Culinary Arts Institute Polish Cookbook: Traditional Recipes Tested for Today’s Kitchens. Thank you to Jane Schafer-Kramer for submitting this recipe. I bid you all a Happy Easter and Happy Spring…and may your cockles be forever warmed.

Krupnik (Honey Vodka)

Ingredients:

1 c. honey

2/3 c. water

1 tsp. vanilla extract

¼ tsp. nutmeg

8 cinnamon sticks

2 whole cloves

6 strips of lemon peel that are about 1-inch long each

2½ c. vodka

Instructions:

Combine the honey, water, vanilla, spices, and lemon peel in a medium-sized saucepan. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the vodka. Remove from heat. Serve warm or chilled. 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Orange Whip? Orange Whip!

There's a scene in the classic Chicago-set 1980 movie The Blues Brothers where an orange whip drink is mentioned seemingly from out of nowhere. It's randomness is why it works, making it a perfect example of the offbeat humor that made the movie a cult classic. Having seen the movie many times, I always wondered: Just what the heck's an orange whip, anyway? Is there a reason why it was mentioned in the movie? And finally, can I make one at home? The Blues Brothers features lots of Chicago scenery and culture, including an exuberant musical number on Maxwell Street and an epic downtown car chase. The plot follows brothers Jake and Elwood Blues (played by John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd) just after Jake's release from prison as they try to raise enough money to save the orphanage where they grew up before getting arrested for various, mostly driving-related violations. The brothers decide to get their old blues band back together, book a show to raise the money, and then p...
Post a Comment
Read more

Malort: The Drink Chicagoans Love to Hate

  Jeppson's Malört was once a niche liqueur consumed mainly within Chicago's Swedish community. Now it's a Chicago favorite that can be found throughout the city and beyond. What caused this change? Turns out all it took was for someone to promote the comedic value of this extremely bitter-tasting drink. Malört is a Swedish liqueur similar to absinthe that is made with wormwood, a bitter herb. It has traditionally been used to treat intestinal parasites and other maladies such as indigestion, hangovers, and nausea. The word malört is Swedish for wormwood .  In the 1920s, Swedish immigrant Carl Jeppson started making his own version of Malört. (He came from a region in Sweden where wormwood grows wild.) Jeppson sold his liqueur door to door in Chicago's Swedish community on the North Side. He got around Prohibition laws by marketing his product as a tonic to cure stomach worms and parasites. Law enforcement concluded that because of its awful taste nobody would drink Mal...
Post a Comment
Read more

Green River: The Chicago-Made Soda with the "Bubbling Snappiness" of Champagne

It has a distinct lime flavor and color. It was once the second most popular soda in the Midwest. There's a rock song named after it. What is it? Green River soda, of course. Chicago-based Schoenhofen Edelweiss Brewing Company, maker of Edelweiss beer, bought the recipe and sales rights for Green River from Davenport, Iowa, businessman Richard C. Jones in 1919. Jones, the owner of a candy store with a soda fountain, had created Green River several years earlier. Jones wanted to create a soft drink with the “bubbling snappiness" of champagne and decided that lime flavor was the way to go. A local teenager was the first to use the name “Green River” when he ordered the drink at Jones's soda fountain and the name stuck.  During the Prohibition years (1920-1933), breweries were turning to manufacturing and selling non-alcoholic goods like soda, yeast, malt syrup, carbonated coffee and tea, and ice cream. Once Schoenhofen Edelweiss started making and distributing Green River, ...
Post a Comment
Read more