A Scottish Autumn Simmer Pot Recipe for the Hob
A simmer pot is water, aromatics, and a low hob. You fill a pan, drop in whatever you have, bring it almost to the boil, and let it breathe into the room for an hour.
Most autumn simmer pot recipes lean American: cinnamon, orange, vanilla, cloves. They smell like a candle from a gift shop. This one doesn't. It uses ingredients that belong to this latitude, including juniper, which Scots have been burning in their homes since the dawn of time.
The result smells like the inside of a bothie after someone has brought wet bracken in on their boots.
What goes in a Scottish autumn simmer pot
Every simmer pot starts with the same base: sliced apple, citrus peel, a cinnamon stick. These are the ones you'll find in any American-style recipe. A Scottish autumn simmer pot recipe adds a second tier on top.
The key ingredient is juniper. In Scotland, burning juniper branches at Hogmanay was a saining ritual, done to cleanse the house at the new year. In water, the berries release the same resinous, piney scent without the smoke. Four to six lightly crushed berries. ENSURE YOU USE FOOD GRADE JUNIPER BERRIES.
Do not ingest: While these ingredients are natural, this mixture is meant strictly for home fragrance, not for drinking.
Pet safety: pet birds and all pets should be kept away from the kitchen and scented vapours, and all pets away from the ingredients and liquid.
Add rosemary or thyme as a green middle note.
How to make it
Slice one apple and add it to a medium saucepan with the peel of half a lemon, one cinnamon stick, four to six juniper berries lightly crushed, and two small rosemary sprigs.
Pour over 750ml to 1 litre of cold water. Bring it just to the boil, then drop the heat as low as it goes. Leave the lid off.
You'll notice the scent after about 15 minutes. From that point, check the water level every 30 minutes or so and top it up before the ingredients start to sit proud of the surface. Do not walk away and forget it.
Do not tip in extra ingredients to refresh the smell. What you put in at the start is what carries the pot.
How long does it keep?
Once you've finished for the day, let the pot cool completely, then transfer it to a covered container and refrigerate it. It will keep until the following day and can be reheated once.
That's the ceiling. Reheating a second time pulls very little scent from ingredients that have already given most of what they had.
Before you reheat, check it. If the water has gone cloudy, the fruit has collapsed into the liquid, or it smells dull rather than fragrant, discard it. Trust your nose on this.
Do not leave the used pot sitting out overnight at room temperature. The fruit breaks down faster than you'd expect, and by morning you'll be reheating something that smells of compost rather than autumn.
A variation to try
The pear and cardamom blend: one pear sliced, a strip of orange peel 10cm long, and 4 lightly cracked cardamom pods.
Follow the same method as the base recipe. With the pear version, the fruit softens quickly, so plan to run it for no more than two hours before the water clouds over.
A note on safety
Two rules, neither negotiable. Do not leave the pan unattended, and check the water level. Stay in the kitchen while the hob is on, and switch it off when leaving.
On pan choice: use stainless steel or enamel. After an hour or two of simmering, juniper berries and citrus peel leave a resinous film on the interior of a non-stick pan.
If you use a slow cooker on low instead, the water still needs topping up, just less often.
One last thing worth knowing: a fresh batch smells strongest in the first 45 minutes. After that the scent is still present but quieter. If you want the full effect for a hour, start the pot around 40 minutes beforehand.
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