Smoking Bishop Recipe from “A Christmas Carol”

by Kelly Hayes December 17, 2022

Always drink responsibly.

When I’m not travelling, I still like finding fun historical things to do, and I love trying Victorian recipes. Over this holiday season, I’ve decided to try a few drinks recipes from Victorian England. For my first recipe, I’m going to be making Smoking Bishop, a warm punch popular in the time of Charles Dickens. It even makes an appearance at the end of his beloved classic A Christmas Carol.

The recipe is from a book I have called Drinking with Dickens which was actually written bu the great-grandson of Charles Dickens. The book takes a look at different drinks that were popular during the Victorian era, many of which feature in Dickens’ novels.

Smoking Bishop in A Christmas Carol

As mentioned, smoking bishop is featured in Charles Dickens’ novella A Christmas Carol. Near the end of the story, Scrooge decides he is going to help the Cratchit family and and says to Bob Cratchit,

“A merrier Christmas, Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you for many a year! I’ll raise your salary, and endeavour to assist your struggling family, and we will discuss your affairs this very afternoon, over a Christmas bowl of smoking bishop, Bob! Make up the fires and buy another coal-scuttle before you dot another i, Bob Cratchit!”

Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol (1843)

How to Make Smoking Bishop

Before we get started, I did want to note that Smoking Bishop needs to sit for 24 hours before complete, so just make sure you leave yourself enough time for this. Let’s get started!

Ingredients

To make Smoking Bishop, you’ll need:

x6 oranges (Seville oranges if possible, but any oranges will do)
1/2 cup of sugar
30 cloves
1 bottle of Portuguese red wine
1 bottle of port

The first step of the recipe is to bake the six oranges on a tray in the oven until they are browned. As the Victorians obviously didn’t have ovens like we do, it’s a bit of a guess. But I set my oven to 350°F and it took about 45 minutes. Just keep an eye on them so they don’t burn!

Once the oranges are browned, remove them from the oven and let them cool. Once cool, add to a bowl and prick five cloves into the side of each orange (30 cloves in total). Then you’re going to add the 1/2 cup of sugar as well as the bottle of Portuguese red wine.

Next, cover the bowl and leave in a warm place in your kitchen for 24 hours.

After 24 hours, slice up the oranges and squeeze them into the bowl. Next, strain the mixture into a pot and add the bottle of port. Heat the mixture on the stove (but do not bring to a boil). Serve in “warmed goblets” and enjoy!