Eggnog – Recipes, Ingredients, Styles, etc.

[slkinsey]

They also, it should be noted, did not find that there was any particular salmonella-killing power to their alcoholic eggnog after it had been inoculated with salmonella. This suggests that, if your eggs are in good shape, you probably have nothing to worry about. But if one of your eggs has salmonella, it's not a given that the booze will kill it.

[Chris Amirault]

Salmonella is in 1 in 20,000 eggs, iirc, right, Sam? I like those odds.

[slkinsey]

Well, exactly. But, from a bacteriological or food safety standpoint, they don't seem to have showed much other than the fact that their relatively bacteria-free egg nog stayed relatively bacteria free over a fairly long time period. Assuming that their handling technique was good and their utensils and containers were clean (all to be expected in their line of work), it's not too much of a surprise.

[thirtyoneknots]

Tried the Alton Brown recipe twice this week, choosing it due to already being scaled down a bit. The first time I had no cream available and could find nowhere open Christmas day that had it available (go me for forgetting it) so I improvised with half and half (1 pint h&h and 1 cup milk), switching the booze to 4 oz cognac and 2 oz rum (Hardy VS and Gosling's)--the original recpe appears to be sorely underpowered in that department. Delicious.

The next day I tried it again with cream and Weller 107 (again with the 6 oz) and lo and behold we all liked the first try better. The h&h contributed and smoothness without being too rich and the roundness of the brandy/rum combo beat out the sharpness of the Weller (not that there's anything wrong with sharpness). The cream version seemed like something you could fill up on far too quickly and the extra milkfat coated the palate. 2% Milk might have helped but it seems slightly blasphemous (and absurd) to mix lofat milk with heavy cream. If I was going to triple the recipe for a crowd, I'd probably go with 2 cups brandy and 1 cup rum, for a little more flavor.

Oh yeah, both times I also added about 2 tsp of pimento dram.

Woohoo for eggnog. Any rules against making it til it warms up or is it confined to the Christmas season?

[Keith Orr]

It's eggnog season again, at least in my mind.

I just made a two batches of my Shop Eggnog.

I varied a bit in one batch by using Whaler's Rum which is darker and sweeter than the Cruzan 2 yo I usually use. I also substituted some housemade pimento dram for some of the brandy.

The traditional batch is aging for Thanksgiving festivities.

[Shamanjoe]

The best recipe I've made so far is from Jeffrey Morgenthaler, a bartender from Oregon who posts the most wonderful drink recipes on his website. He's been making this recipe for a few years now, and keeps re-posting it every year around this time.

http://www.jeffreymorgenthaler.com/2009/egg-nog/

[Jaymes]

The best recipe I've made so far is from Jeffrey Morgenthaler, a bartender from Oregon who posts the most wonderful drink recipes on his website. He's been making this recipe for a few years now, and keeps re-posting it every year around this time.

http://www.jeffreymorgenthaler.com/2009/egg-nog/

That's all well and good, as long as you're not serving any southerners. In the south, we've got to have our bourbon: 1 Cup bourbon, 1/2 cup rum for the flavor, 1/4 cup brandy/cognac for the kick.

That's the perfect combination.

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[Keith Orr]

I think Morgenthaler's recipe is great for quick and dirty eggnog - use 1/3 less sugar though or it's overly sweet to my tastes. I don't think it's in the same league as eggnog that's aged for a minimum of three days and more is even better.

I also agree that even for this Yankee, bourbon is a must ingredient.

[FireAarro]

Keith: do you think if we make it to his recipe (but with bourbon) and leave it for a few days that'll do the trick then?

[Keith Orr]

Keith: do you think if we make it to his recipe (but with bourbon) and leave it for a few days that'll do the trick then?

I think it's certainly worth a try. It's easy enough to make that you might want to try aging a batch and making a fresh batch to make a side by side comparison. Might be a good topic for your blog...

One thing about the amount of sugar in Morganthaler's recipe is that is makes nog that's comparable in sweetness to the commercial product. I prefer it less sweet.

[Shamanjoe]

I understand the bourbon (I forgot to add that I add a little myself, though on a glass-by-glass basis), but I never really thought about the aging part.

Does three days really make that much of a difference?

[kermie]

In fact, I live in the Uk now and have to make my eggnog from scratch. We had a party the other night - no one had ever had it before and most people thought it was advocaat. How strange. They didn't even know what candy canes were though. So after I get them reaquainted with their very own 'halloween' i'll reintroduce them to eggnog.

[kermie]

also a must for my eggnog now is captain morgans spiced rum - adds a great flavour. and yes leaving your eggnog a few days does help it - even without the alcohol.

[Chris Amirault]

As noted above, this is the recipe I've been using, tweaked from Dale DeGroff:

12 extremely fresh medium eggs, separated

2 c caster sugar

2 quarts whole milk

1 quart heavy cream

8 oz bourbon

8 oz Jamaican dark rum

2 oz pimento dram

1/2 nutmeg berry

Beat the yolks until very light, adding half of the sugar as you go. Stir in milk, cream, bourbon, rum, & pimento dram, and grate in half of the nutmeg. Chill mixture thoroughly.

When you're ready to serve, beat the whites until they are foamy, and then add the additional 1c sugar. Peak meringue to soft peaks, and fold into the chilled mixture.

Serve in a chilled bowl surrounded by ice, grating a bit of nutmeg atop each cup.

I've aged the yolk/booze component and it doesn't seem to make a big difference. Having extremely fresh eggs (like go to a farm), caster sugar, and folding the whites in just before service is crucial.

[JTravel]

Have to admit to enjoying Rompope, a Mexican commerical eggnog. It's a different thing than dairy eggnog, or homemade. Can't get it in my part of the country though. Does keep a long time without refrigeration....good/or bad.

Another use is to brush your Christmas breads with a bit of nog, takes the place of egg wash (or evaporated milk) and gives a nice sheen.

[Jaymes]

Have to admit to enjoying Rompope, a Mexican commerical eggnog. It's a different thing than dairy eggnog, or homemade. Can't get it in my part of the country though. Does keep a long time without refrigeration....good/or bad.

Another use is to brush your Christmas breads with a bit of nog, takes the place of egg wash (or evaporated milk) and gives a nice sheen.

What is your "part of the country"? It's becoming more and more available as the Mexican populace increases, so you might try liquor stores in that area of town, assuming you have a "that area of town." But if not, I've always managed to find a liquor store that will order it for me. All of the major suppliers seem to have access to it.

It's also an ingredient in Bayless's Tres Leches Cake, so it's something I always have on hand.

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Edited December 28, 2009 by Jaymes (log)

[FrogPrincesse]

I was in the mood for eggnog the other day and decided to try Jeff Morgenthaler's recipe that a few people already recommended in this thread.

2 large eggs

3 oz (by volume) granulated sugar

½ tsp freshly-grated nutmeg

2 oz brandy

2 oz spiced rum (I use Sailor Jerry’s)

6 oz whole milk

4 oz heavy cream

Beat eggs in blender for one minute on medium speed. Slowly add sugar and blend for one additional minute. With blender still running, add nutmeg, brandy, rum, milk and cream until combined. Chill thoroughly to allow flavors to combine and serve in chilled wine glasses or champagne coupes, grating additional nutmeg on top immediately before serving.

I used Courvoisier V.S. for the brandy and Kraken for the spiced rum. I thought that the flavor was right on, but the sugar content was too high (as Keith Orr had noted upthread). I will decrease it by half next time. The eggnog tasted great right after mixing, and was even better the next day. I had made a large-ish batch hoping to see how the flavor would develop over the next few days/weeks, but when I was invited to a party at the last minute I decided to take my extra bottle with me, which was very well appreciated. I thought using spiced rum was a good way to introduce a lot of flavor and will be making another batch soon.

Edited December 6, 2012 by FrogPrincesse (log)

[_john]

Has anyone though about just melting a gallon of supermarket ice cream, adding some eggs and burbon, and mixing it in the blender? You could foam it before serving in a french press. Already has the guar gum and vanilla extract in there and the milk and cream in similar proportions.

[SylviaLovegren]

Has anyone though about just melting a gallon of supermarket ice cream, adding some eggs and burbon, and mixing it in the blender? You could foam it before serving in a french press. Already has the guar gum and vanilla extract in there and the milk and cream in similar proportions.

In the 70s there was a big fad for making Tom & Jerrys from a homemade mix that was kept in the freezer, based on ice cream, eggs, brown sugar and spices.

[jsmeeker]

I need a good egg nog recipe to make a relatively small amount. Ideally, it would be something I could make and then keep in the fridge in a pitcher or some other container for several days. Recipes I have made in the past included folded or stirred in whipped egg whites or whipped cream. I'm just not sure how stable this will be over several days.

[campus five]

www.jeffreymorgenthaler.com/2009/egg-nog/

Makes a little bit less than a 750ml. It's even better after a day or more in the fridge. And it's easy - no eggs to separate, nothing to whisk - just blend the ingredients in order, and pour into an empty bottle. Done.

I'd seen the recipe back when it was first posted, but never made it. I recently had it at a friend's house and was blown away. It's really delicious.

Should you need to scale it up in future years, there's a much bigger batch on the small screen network.

[campus five]

And you know what, watch the video here: http://www.smallscreennetwork.com/video/781/morgenthaler-method-egg-nog/

It's worth it just to see how easy it is.

[eldereno]

I like Turkey Hill Brand of eggnog as well......if store bought. I love having eggnog available at this time of year. Looking forward to some homemade eggnog at my friend's house on Christmas Eve.

I do remember, as a child, being excited when my dad blended up raw eggs, vanilla, sugar, milk and maybe some spices in a blender and calling it eggnog! I do recall the somewhat slimy nature of it but it still tasted good. Haven't tried doing this as an adult, though.

[SylviaLovegren]

Agree that the Turkey Hill is surprisingly good for store bought. Whole Foods has a brand in glass bottles that was really good, but don't remember the name.

I've been making homemade in the blender with raw but washed, free range eggs. 4 eggs, 1 cup cream, 2 cups milk, splash of brandy or rum (my men folks don't like booze in their nogs, the big sillies), 1/2 t vanilla, couple scrapes of nutmeg, 1/3-1/2 cup sugar. Blend well, then chill. Stir or reblend when serving, top up with choice of booze and a bit more nutmeg. I'm very pleased by the taste and texture. I'd like a bit more alcohol in it, both for taste and to make me happier about the raw eggs, but no reason YOU couldn't add it.

[jsmeeker]

www.jeffreymorgenthaler.com/2009/egg-nog/

Makes a little bit less than a 750ml. It's even better after a day or more in the fridge. And it's easy - no eggs to separate, nothing to whisk - just blend the ingredients in order, and pour into an empty bottle. Done.

I'd seen the recipe back when it was first posted, but never made it. I recently had it at a friend's house and was blown away. It's really delicious.

Should you need to scale it up in future years, there's a much bigger batch on the small screen network.

Thanks! That is the one I wound up making. It's sitting in the fridge right now. I want to to age at least a day.