lv / ru
com! Dmitry Trofimov I (Frat! Arct!)
What is it – Krambambouli?
Krambambouli – a type of punch, which is normally brewed from wine, rum, sugar, fruit juice and\or fruit, and spices. Its name is believed to derive from the name of a strong alcoholic drink which was produced by a liquor factory “Isaak Wedel-Links und Eydam Dirck Hekker” which was situated in Danzig (nowadays Gdansk, Poland). The word itself was combined from the words “Krandewitt” (one of the names of juniper) and “Blamp”, which was a slang name for alcoholic drink. The drink (though of different compoundings) is still produced in Poland (by “SOBIESKI” company) and Byelorussia (by “БЕЛПИ” company).
But nevertheless, it was the punch which became especially popular, and which in Russia was known as zhzhjenka (жжёнка in Russian or, 
hot punch). Among famous admirers of the hot punch Krambambouli were poets Nikolai Jazikov and Alexander Pushkin, as well as Nikolai Gogol, who liked to prepare it for his friends. But very special popularity Krambambouli gained among students and officers. Every regiment and every student organization had its own unique recipe of the drink. As a rule, preparation of Krambambouli was followed by a whole ritual. For example, hussars of the 10th Ingermanlandian hussar regiment were singing a song «Где гусары прежних лет» (“Where are the hussars of past times”) by Denis Davidov, while members of student fraternities were singing a song by Kristof Vedekind, which, in its extreme variants, consisted of 106 (sic!) couplets. This song had been translated into various languages including Russian. It was done by Nikolai Jazikov, who was a member of a student fraternity “Ruthenia” in Derpt (nowadays Tartu, Estonia).
Recipe of Krambambouli from a cook-book “Batman instead of a cook”, 1914:
Ingredients:
Champagne – 2 bottles
Rum – 1 bottle
Sauterne – (white sweet wine) – 1 bottle
Sugar – 1 kilo
Pineapple – 1
Big piece of sugar – 1
How to make it?
Pour two bottles of champagne, one bottle of best rum and one bottle of good sauterne (white sweet wine) into a casserole, put a kilo of sugar, cut pineapple and boil it on a stove; pour it out in a porcelain vase, put on its edges two forks or swords crosswise with a big piece of sugar on top, pour it with rum, then light the sugar and continue pouring it with rum, so that the sugar would start burning and melting, then take the hot punch with a silver soup spoon and start pouring sugar with it, so that the fire would not stop, also adding some fresh rum, while pouring the drink into scoops or cups.
Another recipe: http://wiking.at/bilder/rezept.htm
Translation from russian: Nikolaj Putilin
Images:
1. “Maibowle”, painter: Georg Muhlberg, http://www.humanflowerproject.com
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feuerzangenbowle
