The best Christmas simmer pot recipe is the simple one: one sliced orange, a cup of cranberries, three cinnamon sticks, a tablespoon of whole cloves and two sprigs of rosemary in about four cups of water, kept at the lowest simmer on the back burner. That is the smell most people mean when they say a house smells like Christmas. Below are eight Christmas and winter simmer pots with real amounts, from gingerbread to a clean lemon pot for January, plus how long one lasts and when a slow cooker is the easier choice.
Simmer Pot Recipes for Christmas and Winter: 8 Easy Pots
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How do you make a simmer pot?
A simmer pot is stovetop potpourri: fruit, spice and herbs heated in water so the aroma drifts through the house. It is about the cheapest way to make your home smell good, and it uses things you already buy for baking.
- Pick a pot. A 2 to 3 quart saucepan is plenty for a small home. Any pot works, though Jennifer Morrisey at Life in the Finger Lakes keeps a thrifted enamel pan just for this, so pine sap never ends up in her cooking pans.
- Add water. About 4 cups. More water means the pot lasts longer before you top it up.
- Bring to a boil, add the fruit and spices to the boiling water, then turn the heat down until the water barely moves. Simmer on low, not a rolling boil.
- Add water as needed. Check it about every 30 minutes and add a cup of hot water when the level drops. Never let it boil dry.
- Give it time. A Hallmark writer who developed three Christmas pots says it takes a good hour before the scent reaches the rest of the house, so start it before guests arrive.
What can you put in a simmer pot?
Almost anything that smells good in a kitchen. Pick one or two from each row and you have a recipe.
| Group | Good winter choices |
|---|---|
| Fruit | Orange slices or orange rind, apple slices or apple peels, lemon, lime, fresh or frozen cranberries |
| Whole spice | Cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, star anise, allspice berries, cardamom pods, peppercorns, a whole nutmeg |
| Fresh herbs and greens | Rosemary, thyme, bay leaf, pine needles or a sprig of fir |
| Extras | A teaspoon of vanilla extract, a slice of fresh ginger, a splash of apple cider |
Whole spices beat ground ones. Elaine at Flavour and Savour points out that ground spice eventually turns to a muddy sludge at the bottom of the pot, while a cinnamon stick or a clove just keeps giving.
8 Christmas and winter simmer pot recipes
Each simmer pot recipe below is sized for about 4 cups of water in a 2 to 3 quart saucepan, and each one takes about 10 minutes to put together. Double it for a big stockpot. Swap freely: if you only have one cinnamon stick, use one, and no single ingredient is a must.
1. Classic Christmas cranberry orange
- 1 orange, sliced into rounds
- 1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
- 3 cinnamon sticks
- 1 tablespoon whole cloves
- 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
Nearly every Christmas simmer pot starts here. The cranberry turns the water deep red and the cinnamon and clove do the rest.
2. Christmas tree pot with pine and star anise
- 2 or 3 small sprigs of pine or fir
- Peel of 1 orange
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 3 whole star anise
Snip a few sprigs from the back of your Christmas tree or from an evergreen in the yard. Allrecipes has a winter simmer pot along these lines with a pine sprig, star anise, vanilla and three kinds of peel, simmered on low for up to 8 hours.
3. Gingerbread spice
- A 2 inch piece of fresh ginger, sliced into coins
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 1 teaspoon whole cloves
- 1 whole nutmeg, cracked, or ½ teaspoon ground
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cookies in the oven, minus the dishes. Add the vanilla near the end so it does not cook off in the first hour.
4. Mulled apple cider
- 1 apple, sliced, or the apple peels from a pie
- 2 cups apple cider plus 2 cups water
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 1 tablespoon whole allspice berries
- Peel of 1 orange
Cider makes the house smell like a holiday open house. Start this one an hour before people come over.
5. Chai spice
- 1 tablespoon cardamom pods, lightly crushed
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 1 teaspoon whole cloves
- A 2 inch piece of fresh ginger, sliced
- 3 whole star anise
- 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
Apartment Therapy’s chai version uses cardamom, cinnamon, clove and ginger. The star anise and peppercorns add a little bite, so it smells like a coffee shop rather than a candy store.
6. Snowy day lemon, rosemary and bay
- 1 lemon, sliced
- 3 sprigs fresh rosemary
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Not every winter scent has to be sweet. This one smells clean and green, close to the lemon and rosemary pot people call the Williams Sonoma scent. Hallmark’s “Winter Wonderland” recipe goes the same way with lemon, rosemary, bay leaves, vanilla and juniper berries.
7. Kitchen scraps pot
- Apple peels and cores from baking
- Orange or lemon rind from breakfast
- 1 or 2 cinnamon sticks
- Whatever whole spice is left in the jar
The thrifty one. Apartment Therapy suggests saving citrus peels and apple and pear skins for the pot instead of composting them, and Orrs Farm Market makes a pot whenever the apples and oranges go soft before anyone eats them. It is also handy for covering a cooking odor like fish or bacon.
8. Winter citrus for January
- 1 orange and 1 lemon, sliced
- 1 lime, sliced (optional)
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 sprig fresh rosemary
After a month of cinnamon, citrus and thyme smell like someone opened a window. We keep this one in our January reset for a small home for the weekend the tree comes down.
Stovetop or slow cooker?
Both work. The stove gives a stronger scent faster. A slow cooker is easier to leave going through a long afternoon while you wrap presents.
| Stovetop | Slow cooker | |
|---|---|---|
| Scent | Stronger, reaches the whole house sooner | Softer, stays closer to the kitchen |
| Water | Check about every 30 minutes | Lasts longer between top-ups |
| Heat | Lowest burner setting after it boils | High until it steams, then low |
| Best for | Parties, a quick scent before guests | Slow days at home, a small apartment |
For a slow cooker, The Real Food Dietitians fill it with water and ingredients, turn it on high, and when it starts to steam, take the lid off and switch it to low. Apartment Therapy says to keep a slow cooker at least halfway full.
A small one is plenty. The Crock-Pot 2-Quart Manual Slow Cooker (opens Amazon in a new tab)As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Full disclosure. fits on a crowded counter and holds one simmer pot recipe with room for the water. If you have a wood stove, a pot on top of it works the same way and adds a little moisture to dry winter air.
How long does a simmer pot last?
One session is usually 2 to 3 hours of good scent on the stove, longer in a slow cooker. The ingredients last a few days if you look after them.
Between uses, let the water cool, cover the pot and put it in the fridge. Grow Create Sip reuses hers for up to three days, adding fresh water each time. The Real Food Dietitians stretch their Christmas pot to 7 days in the fridge, topping it up with water and a few fresh ingredients. Eat Picks gets 2 or 3 reheats before the scent fades.
Throw it out when the fruit turns slimy, the water smells sour, or you see mold.
How do you make a simmer pot smell stronger?
It sounds backward, but use more water, not less. The Hallmark writer fills the pot as full as it will go: the balance of scents is what carries through the house, not how strong the water is, and a full pot lasts longer.
- Break the cinnamon sticks and crack a few cardamom pods so more spice touches the water.
- Go heavy on the loud ones. Clove, star anise and pine carry. Apple and vanilla are quiet.
- Add vanilla or a drop of essential oil at the end, not the beginning.
- Keep it at a bare simmer. A hard boil cooks the fruit to mush and the aroma goes flat.
Can you use ground spices or essential oils?
Yes, in a pinch. A teaspoon of ground cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice works when the jar of sticks is empty, though it clouds the water and leaves sludge in the pan. Save pumpkin pie spice and an apple pie mix for fall anyway, since winter calls for clove and pine. With essential oil, a few drops of orange or spruce sold for food use is enough. The Travel Bite says that if it is edible, it can go in the pot, and that is a good rule for anything you add.
How do you give a simmer pot as a gift?
A jar of dry simmer pot mix costs very little to put together and nobody has to find a shelf for it. It works for neighbors and teachers, and it is a good thing to hand the host at the door. Our Christmas hostess gift ideas has more in the same spirit.
- Dry the oranges. Coco and Ash slices navel oranges ⅛ to ¼ inch thick, pats them dry, and bakes them on parchment at 200°F for about 3 hours, flipping halfway, until they are no longer shiny.
- Fill the jar. In a 16 ounce wide mouth jar, layer 3 dried orange slices, 2 cinnamon sticks, 1 tablespoon whole cloves, 3 whole star anise and 1 tablespoon allspice berries.
- Write the tag. “Add 1 cup fresh cranberries and 4 cups water. Bring to a boil, then simmer on low. Add water as needed.”
- Fresh or dried? Flavour and Savour says a bag with a fresh orange and cranberries has to stay in the fridge until you hand it over. A dried mix keeps for weeks, so make a batch now and wrap them all at once. If something fresh is in it, The Real Food Dietitians write “simmer within 2 weeks” on the tag.
Wide mouth pint jars like these Ball 16 ounce jars (opens Amazon in a new tab)As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Full disclosure. are easy to fill with whole cinnamon sticks and orange slices. Tie on a kraft tag with twine and a sprig of rosemary.
Do simmer pots really work?
They do. In a small home, one pot on the stove is enough to reach the kitchen and the rooms around it, and the Hallmark writer counts on about an hour for the scent to spread. It is a softer smell than a scented candle, more like something baking than perfume. The Real Food Dietitians switched to simmer pots over the holidays because they wanted that Christmas candle smell from fruit and spice instead. If you like a candle burning too, the two go well together: the simmer pot in the kitchen, a candle in the living room.
The one plain rule: it is a pot of water on a burner, so stay home while it is on and turn it off when you go to bed. A slow cooker set to low is the easier choice for a long day of baking and wrapping.
What to buy
Most of this is already in your spice cabinet. If you make simmer pots every week in December, buying the spices in bulk is cheaper than the little grocery jars.
- Whole cloves, 1 pound: Frontier Co-op Organic Cloves (opens Amazon in a new tab)As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Full disclosure.
- Cinnamon sticks, about 100: Spicy World Cinnamon Sticks, 14 ounce bag (opens Amazon in a new tab)As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Full disclosure.
- Star anise, whole pods: Spicy World Star Anise, 14 ounce bag (opens Amazon in a new tab)As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Full disclosure.
- Gift jars: Ball Wide Mouth Pint Mason Jars, 3 pack (opens Amazon in a new tab)As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Full disclosure.
- A small slow cooker: Crock-Pot 2-Quart Manual Slow Cooker (opens Amazon in a new tab)As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Full disclosure.
