Pomanders

At this season, the table in front of the fire and the TV always sprouts a bowl that contains oranges/lemons/clementines, cloves, a couple nails (and my awl), and paper towels. I make pomanders while I "veg” at night and watch all the Christmas tear-jerkers on TV. And other family members like to get into the act too … kids aren’t patient, but they can start ‘em and you can finish them. The oranges are the juiciest (thus the towels!) but really satisfy the best. I pick one, grab a nail or an awl, and punch about 10 holes in the orange in some random pattern that strikes me. Then I put a whole clove in each hole.

Then I repeat that again and again until the whole orange is covered … leaving “gentle” room in between clove heads that will disappear as the orange dries out and shrinks. I’ve seen in some magazines that they make pomanders with far fewer cloves and show the clove-head patterns, but in my opinion that’s the lazyman’s way!

So what is a pomander? It’s a smell-good. Yes, I know, I don’t need to fumigate our castle with them, as they did “of yore” in the 1500s, but I still think they add to the whole ambiance of the season. A bowl of completed pomanders is a nice touch (but it’s the doing that is the best part!)

It’s not really the cloves and orange that create the smell, though. It’s what you roll them in while they cure. Today’s pomander will be NEXT year’s decoration, for it needs time to shrink and then be decorated.

Okay… so by the end of the fire and the TV for the night, you may have finished filling your orange with cloves. Your hands are sticky … you’ve had enough for the night. But the next day, you need to roll your pomander in a bowlful of other spices that you have prepared for all the pomanders that this season will produce. In that bowl you have a mixture of cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, ginger, and orris root powder.* I guess ground cloves could be used too. Since the spice companies all say that we should not have OLD spices in our cabinets, this is a good way to sweep away the old.

And what, you ask, is orris root powder? … and where do you get it?!? It’s the ground up root of Iris germanica, and it aids in the curing/drying/preserving process. We’re fortunate to have spice shops near us to buy cloves in bulk and herb shops near us so we can get Orris Root Powder. (I just called Rosemary House** in Pennsylvania -where I get mine – and they have it for $2.80 for an ounce or $5.25 for two ounces.) I seem to recall that some pharmacies carry Orris too.

I not only roll my new pomanders in the preserving potion, I refresh the older ones too … if I can get around the decorations on them. Then the new pomanders get put in a cool, dry place to cure, and the old ones go in a bowl to be admired and smelled. Ah-h-h!

You hostesses out there, take note. The fixin’s for pomander balls are a great gift or favor if some of your friends come over for a holiday luncheon. I mix the orris powder concoction, put an orange, some cloves, and a nail in a box with it, and gift with joy. One year, my friends waited until Christmas morning to open the gift, so warn yours to not wait.

* If you want specific amounts of spices to use, I guess I use equal parts … maybe three tablespoons … of each.

** Click link to www.therosemaryhouse.com