The basic ingredients to make a good Galician queimada are the sugar and a good Galician brandy “of those who make rosary”, as we Galicians say, and that burns well because if we use a poor quality brandy, we will not get the alcohol to burn. To these two basic ingredients we will add fruits and coffee beans. In addition, we will have to recite the “Conxuro da queimada” without which our queimada would not be an authentic and original Galician queimada.
As in all recipes, there are infinite variations when making a Galician queimada, both in the amount of sugar that we use and in the quantity and variety of fruits that are added and, as always in these things, each maestrillo has its recipe and its proportions that vary with the tastes of each one. My advice is to start with one basic recipe and that you go testing until you find the proportion that you like. Next, we indicate what do we need to make a traditional Galician queimada:
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- The recipient: the necessary container for this elaboration is the one known as “pot da queimada” which is a traditional clay container with its wells. However, if you do not have this element, because outside of Galicia it can be a bit difficult to obtain, any fire-resistant pot or container, better if it is made of terracotta, would help us to make it.
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- The sugar: the amount of sugar to use depends a little on the tastes of each one and how sweet we want it to be. For this recipe, we will use an amount that will give us a sweet burn but without going too far and that will allow the brandy to burn well.
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- Fruits and other ingredients: One of the main doubts when making a burn is what to add. Well, the addition of fruits is a little to each person’s taste and availability. There are recipes that add banana, apple, anise and some other spices. In this recipe, we make a traditional and simple queimada with orange and lemon peel, cinnamon and the coffee beans, also essential. However, there is nothing written for tastes, so everyone can add what they have or what they like to make this party drink.
Once we have decided which ingredients to add to our queimada and to scare away the witchesthat although we do not believe in them, you already know that hablalas hailas, we light the queimada and we recite the “Conxuro da queimada” which is what gives the queimada its powers. We recite the spell without ceasing to stir it with the ladle, lifting it up and letting the burning liquid fall from above, which, in addition to being hypnotic, is important so that the fire does not go out. The queimada will burn until all the alcohol is burned or until we decide to put it out, so that it conserves more or less alcohol according to our tastes.
Last but not least, it never hurts to remember that this type of preparation with fire present must always be made with much caution, outside, without flammable material in its vicinity and without neglecting the fire at any time. As it is said in Galicia, with feeling.
Taking these considerations and the following spell into account, let’s go with the recipe for the traditional Galician queimada.
The spell of burning
Mouchos, coruxas, toads and witches
Demos, trasnos e dianos, spirits of the snowy Veigas
Corvos, píntigas and witches, feitizos das menciñeiras
Poor furious cannons, fog two worms and vermin
Lume das Santas Compañas, mal de ollo, negros meigallos, cheiro dos mortos, tronos e raios.
Oubeo do can, proclamation of death, fouciño do satiro e pé do coello
Sinful lingua da bad muller married with home hair
Hell of Satan and Beelzebub, light two burning corpses, mutilated corpses two indecent, two infernal skinned cous, mud of the raging sea
Useless belly gives muller spin, talk two cats that walk to xaneira, guedella porra gives badly born goat
With this fol I will raise the girls from this light that resembles the hell, and the witches will flee riding their brooms, going to bathe in the fat areas beach
Hey, hey! The roars that they give so that they cannot stop burning, not burning, thus being purified.
And when this concoction sinks into our fats, we will be free of two evils of our soul and of all bewitchment.
Forces of air, land, sea and light, I make this call to you: if it is true that you have more power than human beings, here and now, faced by the spirits of two friends who are abroad, participate with us in this call.
And with all this that I have just told you and a good party with friends, you can now make your Galician queimada.
recipe information
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- Preparation time: 5 minutes
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- cooking time: 30 minutes
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- total time: 35 minutes
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- rations: 8,700ml
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- Category: drinks
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- type of cuisine: Galician
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- Calories per serving (kcal):354
Ingredients for the Galician queimada for 8 people
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- 1.5 liters of quality white brandy
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- 250g of sugar
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- 1 orange peel
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- 1 lemon rind
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- 1 cinnamon stick
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- 1 teaspoon of coffee beans
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- 20 ml of black coffee
How to make Galician queimada
We prepare the ingredients, our container to make the queimada and a ladle that we will use to stir it so that it does not go out. We place everything on a table that is at a comfortable height to stir. When we have everything ready, we pour 1.5 liters of brandy into the container.
Next, we add 200 g of sugar, although we can add more or less as we like the queimada to be more or less sweet. Stir well to dissolve the sugar.
Finally we add 1 orange peel, 1 lemon peel, 1 cinnamon stick, 1 teaspoon of coffee beans and mix everything well with the help of the ladle.
At this time we can set fire to the burnt. We will do this first from the bucket. To do this, we fill a ladle of brandy with about 50 g of sugar and set it on fire with the help of a lighter and carefully. For this, we do not need to heat the brandy, we will light it directly as it is, at room temperature. However, if the brandy is not of good quality, we will need to heat it a bit so that it burns.
When the brandy in the ladle has lit, little by little we lower it and put the spoon into the container with the rest of the brandy so that all the liquid catches fire.
We have to do this carefully so that the fire spreads over the entire surface. From here, we begin to stir little by little with the ladle so that the alcohol burns. We can see that when the alcohol in the brandy burns, the fire initially has a bluish tone.
At this moment we can already recite the “Conxuro da queimada”. To do this, we raise the ladle between verses, and repeat the word “lume” while we let the liquid fall and watch the fire fan itself.
After burning for a while, we taste it to see if it is at the point that we like in alcohol. The time that the queimada is left to burn is relative to the tastes of each one or the result that is sought, and can vary between 15 and 30 minutes: the shorter the time, the greater the amount of alcohol still present and therefore the queimada will be stronger. To test it, we put a little in a well and blow on it to put out the fire in it. If we like the result and the amount of alcohol present, we proceed to turn it off. We have let it burn for 30 minutes. To quench the burn, we can add a small cup of black coffee, about 20 ml. Another option to put out the fire is to cover it.
We can also let it go off on its own, without removing it once all the alcohol has burned. In this case the result will be a very sweet and smooth drink.
Once it is ready, we serve the Galician queimada warm in the clay pots of the container itself as usual. If we don’t consume it all while it’s hot, it’s also good cold, so you can store it and serve it cold like a liqueur.
Easy preparation summary
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- Prepare the container for the queimada and pour the brandy
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- Add the sugar and stir
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- Add the orange peel, the lemon, the cinnamon, the coffee beans and mix everything well
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- We take a ladle of brandy, add a little sugar and put it on fire
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- We bring the lit ladle closer to the container with the rest of the brandy so that everything lights up
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- We remove the set so that it burns
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- We recite the “Conxuro da queimada” while we raise the liquid with the ladle and let it fall to stoke the fire
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- After a while, we try the queimada and if we like the point, we put out the fire with a cup of coffee or cover it
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- We can also let it turn itself off when all the alcohol has been consumed
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- We serve the Galician queimada warm in its traditional clay pots
