Eggnog
Eggs, sugar, cream and spirit, aged in the fridge until it turns silky. Made properly and left alone for a month, it is one of the great drinks — not the carton product it has come to mean.
Built to the standard modern spec; not yet tested in our kitchen. How we test.
The recipe.
Scaling adjusts quantities only. Prepare shaken drinks in individual portions.
Let’s make a good drink.
Separate the egg. Whisk the yolk with the syrup until pale and thick.
Whisk in the rum, cognac, milk and cream.
Beat the white to soft peaks and fold it through — this is what makes it light rather than heavy.
Chill thoroughly, pour into a glass or cup, and grate fresh nutmeg over the top.
A thoughtful finish
- Age it if you can. Combine everything except the egg white in a sealed bottle and leave it in the fridge for two weeks to three months. The alcohol preserves it and the texture becomes noticeably silkier — this is the single biggest improvement available.
- Fold the white in at the last minute. Folded in early it collapses; folded in at serving it gives the drink a foam cap and a much lighter body.
- Grate the nutmeg fresh. Pre-ground nutmeg is dusty and tastes of almost nothing by comparison.
Common mistakes
- Using a single spirit. The traditional recipes blend two or three — rum with cognac, or rum with rye and sherry — because the combination is far more interesting than any one alone.
- Over-sweetening. The cream and the egg already read as sweet; a 2:1 syrup at three-quarters of an ounce is enough.
- Serving it warm. Traditional American eggnog is a cold drink; the hot egg drink is a Tom and Jerry, which is a different recipe.
A few good questions.
Is raw egg safe?
Raw egg carries a small salmonella risk. Use fresh refrigerated eggs, and avoid it if you are pregnant, elderly, very young or immunocompromised. Notably, aged eggnog at a reasonable alcohol strength has been tested and found to become microbiologically safer over weeks of cold storage — the alcohol does the work. This is general information, not medical advice.
How long can I age it?
Recipes aged a year are documented and reportedly excellent. Two weeks makes a clear difference; a month more so. Keep it sealed and cold, and leave the egg whites out until serving.
Can I make it alcohol-free?
You can make the custard base without spirit, but then it will not keep — treat it as fresh and drink it the same day. The alcohol is what preserves traditional eggnog.
What is the difference from a Tom and Jerry?
Tom and Jerry is served hot, with the egg whites beaten into a batter and hot milk or water added to order. Eggnog is cold.
Variations
- Tom and Jerry — The hot version, served from a batter.
- Coquito — The Puerto Rican coconut version.
- Brandy Alexander — Cognac, crème de cacao and cream.
- Hot Buttered Rum — Rum with a spiced butter batter.
Where it comes from
c. 1600s · Britain, then colonial America
Eggnog descends from posset, a medieval British drink of hot milk curdled with ale or wine and spiced. It crossed to colonial America, where rum was cheap and dairy plentiful, and became a Christmas fixture. George Washington’s household kept a recipe calling for rye, rum and sherry together. The ‘nog’ is probably from noggin, a small wooden cup. The crucial and widely forgotten point is that traditional eggnog is aged — weeks or months in the cold, where the alcohol both preserves it and transforms the texture.
Sources
- Mount Vernon, George Washington's eggnog recipe, 18th century (archive)
- David Wondrich, Punch, 2010 (book)
- Jerry Thomas, The Bar-Tender's Guide, 1862 (book)
Strength. About 1 US standard drinks at an estimated 7.7% ABV, estimated from the ingredients and technique, not measured. What that means.
A little character in every sip.
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