SC - Mulled Cider

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Elysant at aol.com wrote:
> 
> Adamantius wrote:
> 
> "...wonder if we're going to find that "mulled" is British West Country
> dialect for "hot".
<snip>
> Back to "mulled".  I don't know other than English or Welsh what language
> would influence the dialect there, and Welsh words for hot or warm are things
> like "twym" or "poeth" - not at all like "mulled".
> 
> So I looked mulled up the the Merriam-Websters Online dictionary, and came up
> with the fact that "mull" as a verb comes "from Middle English  - from mul,
> mol dust, probably from Middle Dutch"  It is akin to the Old English "melu"
> meaning "meal" and refers the reader to "meal".
> 
> To mull first appeared in the 15th century and currently means "to grind or
> mix thoroughly - PULVERIZE".

Okay, so probably not West Country (was thinking Kentish, maybe Cornish)
dialect for "hot". However, my Webster's New World Dictionary draws a
distinction between the mull as in pulverize, and mull as in "soft",
associated with, for example, the French oeufs mollet or soft-boiled
eggs, and, according to them, with mulled wine and cider. Maybe the
gentle heat?
 
> Under "meal" I found the additional information that "meal" comes also from
> the old English "melu" and is akin to Old High German "melo" meal, Latin
> "molere" to grind,  and the Greek "myle" to mill.

> In another part of his post Adamantius wrote:
> 
> >(snip) mulled beer (traditionally made with a red-hot poker thrust into it)
> 
> My great grandmother (Welsh) used to put a red hot poker into water to infuse
> iron into it for people who were anaemic.  Don't know how related that is to
> the topic at hand, but thought it an interesting tidbit.

Hey, it couldn't hoit! I actually have an antique beer-muller,
essentially a covered, narrow-tapered stein or jack made of hammered,
tinned copper, with a little notch in the cover so it can be closed
completely with the heating element thrust inside. It's a piece of
carved stone, kinda like firebrick, shaped (and sized) approximately
like an egg, with a hole through the middle, with a brass rod peened
loosely to secure it. I think it has to be loose to allow for expansion
and contraction due to heating and cooling.

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com