Eggnog

I am spending my first holiday season in Africa… my heart sank when I remembered eggnog and the fact that I would not be able to go to the store and get any… nor would anyone be able to send it in a care package! Then gritty determination kicked in, and voila! Simply Recipes to the rescue. Can’t wait. Will make it tomorrow for our Thanksgiving feast. Thank you from one northern Californian foodie to another.

And for our German friend: When I was in college I worked at Starbucks and got hooked on hot steamed eggnog. I had no idea that this was the old-fashioned way, but if we could put it in a latte, one could just have it straight, ja? Maybe since we began storing the stuff in refrigerators, people lost touch with the hot and fresh kind. Thanks for sharing the cultural roots!

I used to make an eggnog recipe that was basically pasteurized, but I decided that it’s way too much effort. Like you said–if you overcook the eggnog, it curdles. That happened to me, and I had already spent so long stirring it that I found it depressing.
So this year I tried the aged eggnog recipe from Chow.com. http://leah10x10.blogspot.com/2010/12/aged-eggnog.html

I buy eggs from a local woman who has a backyard flock of laying hens. I’ve been serving these raw eggs to my family for years without issue. So I make egg nog very quickly with raw eggs, raw cream, and a hand held “stick” blender – often for breakfast! It’s a tasty and easily digested protein energy drink that’s just about as easy to make and clean up as any “instant” breakfast drink, and it keeps hunger at bay for hours if I keep the sweet level very low (I use a drizzle of real maple syrup usually).

I’ve found that adding some peach brandy moderates the ‘hot’ taste of the alcohol, making it much more palatable to people who don’t like the taste of bourbon, rum, etc.

Oh, thank you. This reminds me of my father’s eggnog when I was growing in the 50’s. Friends would bring over the makings on Christmas Eve, including a Jewish friend for my father to make batches of eggnog for them. He was famous for it.

Also, remember the clear pink pitcher setting on the sideboard of my grandmother’s boiled custard. Yum!

We always had homemade eggnog for Christmas morning breakfast (not spiked :) with grilled English muffins & jam. We just threw eggs (whites and yolks), milk, vanilla ice cream, sugar, vanilla extract and nutmeg in the blender. We never had the kind in a carton and when I finally tried it as a young adult I didn’t like it – too thick!

Thank you. Is this for kids?

Yes, if you omit the alcohol and egg whites. ~Elise

My Dad always makes eggnog for our caroling party, from the 1964 Joy of Cooking ‘eggnog in quantity’ recipe (I think that was one of the recipes left out of the 1975 and later editions). Yum. It does have raw eggs – also immense amounts of powdered sugar and evaporated milk (instead of cream). He also whips the whites and sort of floats them on top – I prefer them folded in, but I can do that when I serve myself. And we serve it unspiked with assorted alcohols available so people can adjust it to their liking. And what doesn’t get drunk, I get!

I absolutely hated eggnog (store bought version) until last year when I tried Alton Brown’s recipe. He has 2, one cooked, like this one, and a “raw” one using pasteurized eggs and whipped eggs whites. I tried the uncooked version with lots of bourbon and lo and behold, I liked eggnog! Apparently, it also makes a good ice cream base, can’t wait to try that. I also think it would make a tasty bread pudding with pannetone – yum!

I make homemade eggnog just about every year, and it gets demolished in minutes. We leave it unspiked, but put out kahlua for anyone who wants it. It is very good with the kahlua in it.

The recipe I use has egg beaters in it, though pasteurized eggs would work, and we now have really fresh farm eggs, and I wouldn’t hesitate to use them. We put vanilla ice cream in it, as well as unsweetened whipped cream that is folded in. I like it with lots and lots of nutmeg.

I like the idea of using it as a base for french toast, I had not thought of that. Usually, if we have any left, we use it in baked goods.

I grew up with boiled custard, a Southern traditional alternative to eggnog. Boiled custard was apparently so popular in the south that,according to my mother, prepared boiled custard was available on store shelves in the same way eggnog was available elsewhere in the country. The consistency of boiled custard is much thicker than eggnog and instead of folding in whipped egg whites, you fold in whipped cream, which adds some lightness to the drink but leaves it creamy. The spiked version uses Kentucky Bourbon of course – and once I was old enough to have adult beverages, I came to appreciate boiled custard even more.

We had the cartons of eggnog in the daytime, I would always put milk in my glasses too as it was so rich.

My special memories are when my Dad used to get this wonderful batter – called Tom and Jerry mix – that he would mix with boiling water. The adults would get brandy and something – the kids would just get whipped cream. It was wonderful stuff. About ten years ago I had with banana rum and it was the best. I can’t find the batter anymore now though, so I might give your recipe a try!

Thanks for all your lovely ideas – I look forward to seeing what you discover in 2008.

: )

June