Thanks to my highly productive Reds and Australorps, I will have no egg shortage to contend with during this year’s eggnog season. Maybe it’s too soon to talk about eggnog — we haven’t even had Thanksgiving in the US. Oh well.
I have what I consider a very fine eggnog recipe, which I post at Rumproast each year and am sharing below. It not only tastes good, it’s deceptively strong and is highly effective for silencing tiresome wingnut relatives, dispatching the Sandman to whisk them to Dreamland in front of the television. That way the bakers don’t have to hear the self-described makers bitching about the goddamned takers:
INGREDIENTS:
6 eggs, separated
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup Southern Comfort*
1/2 cup rum**
1/2 cup bourbon***
2 cups whipping cream
2 cups whole milk
Freshly grated nutmegDIRECTIONS:
Separate eggs and reserve whites in fridge in a separate container. In a large bowl, beat yolks until lemony, gradually adding sugar. Add the booze. Refrigerate mixture overnight.****Next day, add milk to booze mixture. Beat egg whites until stiff peak stage. Separately beat whipping cream to the consistency of that nasty Cool Whip crap. Fold egg whites into booze mixture, then fold in whipped cream. Don’t over-mix—leave it a little lumpy. Grate nutmeg over top and enjoy!
* As vile and hideous as Southern Comfort is (and no one despises it more than I do, having once yerked up great quantities of it all over a golf course during a teenage drinking binge), it is for some reason an essential ingredient in this recipe. I tried doubling the GOOD bourbon once and eliminating the SoCo, and it wasn’t as good. Really.
** I generally use Appleton’s, but last year I tried it with Kraken rum, which is just insanely good. In my opinion.
*** I usually use Maker’s Mark or Knob Creek. Because I care.
**** We’ve omitted the refrigerate overnight step a time or two. If you’ve already had several cups of it made the proper way, you won’t notice the difference. If you haven’t you will. Funny how that works.
I haven’t found a recipe to rival this one, but I am open-minded. Please feel free to share your all-time favorite eggnog recipe. Or talk about whatever.
[X-posted at Rumproast]
AA+ Bonds
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Gaza flares as Israel hits back killing four
AA+ Bonds
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Thousands Flee Syria as Fighting Continues
Yutsano
Egg nog is a winter drink if that helps Betty. So by all means indulge yourself, and your girls will give you the best nog you’ve ever had. Also: if you don’t see any signs of poor health in your hens (if their neck feathers are shiny they’re healthy!) eating their eggs raw should be perfectly safe.
AA+ Bonds
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Coal company exec lays off more than 160 workers after Obama re-election
Keith G
1 doz eggs
Hudson Baby Bourbon Whiskey
Make a souffle with the eggs and sip the bourbon while watching college football.
Wilson Heath
I object to SoCo on general aesthetic principle. My old standby for Nog liquor had been brandy, but after taste testing against bourbon and dark rum the dark rum won. However, I could maybe see combining the three. Either that or I would double the dark rum or use a different brand to replace the SoCo. That stuff is unholy.
WereBear
This recipe calls to me. I’ve tried quick ‘n’ dirty nog alternatives using blenders and whatnot, but they all fall short.
Thanks!
I will call it… Betty’s Nog.
Eljai
That sounds delicious. But I am a lazy taker. Is there a semi-homemade version I could try? Would it be sacrilegious to add booze to store bought nog? What if I buy organic nog?
lgerard
Love eggnog!
If you substitute beach for golf course, I had the same Southern Comfort experience….must be a universal rite of passage
GeneJockey
Here’s mine. It’s unbeatable for convenience:
Ingredients:
1 Carton eggnog
Instructions:
Open carton. Pour in glass (optional). Drink.
Just kidding! The recipe sounds very interesting, especially with “home grown” eggs, but I’m the only one in the family who will even drink the storebought stuff, let alone something made from raw eggs!
Betty Cracker
@Wilson Heath: Wilson, I urge you to give it a try. I think SoCo is Satan’s piss too, but it works in this eggnog recipe. It’s a mystery…
@Yutsano: Didn’t know that about the neck feathers! The girls do have lovely plumage and seem healthy and happy. Can’t wait to see how their eggs enhance the nog!
Maude
That nog will knock a horse off its hooves.
Could have used it on the bush this morning. A woman was non stop hate and race talk. She does not like Obama. I asked her to stop three times. She got a bit nasty with me. I’m going to complain about her to the county Tuesday. That is way over the top. The nog would have silenced her.
Amir Khalid
@AA+ Bonds:
I take it that no state or federal employment law protects employees from such politically motivated vindictiveness.
Yutsano
@GeneJockey: I would never eat an egg raw from the store. Ever. Even if they were pasteurized I still wouldn’t touch them. If I can’t see the health of the hen that sucker gets incinerated.
Maude
29 EV for Obama Florida. Finally.
SiubhanDuinne
Apparently there was an earthquake in Kentucky a few hours ago. A lot of people in Atlanta felt it, although I did not. Four point something, so not huge.
Yutsano
@Amir Khalid: It could possibly be a labour law violation. I do believe it’s under investigation right now.
quannlace
AA+ forgot to add that this is the same asshole who docked his workers pay so they could be a contrived backdrop for Romney’s rally at the mine.
He’s also directly responsible for miner’s deaths due to safety violations he’s ignored.
MikeJ
@SiubhanDuinne: Near the New Madrid fault? Growing up in Memphis we always heard about the big one that hit in the 1800s and made the Mississippi river run backwards for three days, rang church bells in Boston, etc.
bemused
@Yutsano:
I read in a thread from last night you may be having some kind of hip surgery. My fil had a hip replacement last Tuesday. His hip was so bad, he could barely sleep from the pain. He felt so much better. The pain from the surgery itself after was nothing in comparison. The surgeon did his from the front. Previously hip replacements have been done from the back. He was in the hospital only two nights, got home on the third day. He’s on his third day home and doing great.
btw, my fil is 93 years old.
c u n d gulag
Me?
I buy some cheap container of egg nog, and use it to chase my cheap vodka on the rocks.
Being poor sucks.
Being poor and sober, is worse.
AA+ Bonds
@quannlace:
Thanks for noting this, but I’d hope everyone on BJ already knows his name . . .
cathyx
I like this recipe. It’s basically;
Southern Comfort
Bourbon
Rum
A few other things
Mnemosyne
I lost my copy to cat pee, but there’s a similar egg nog recipe in The Bad-For-You Cookbook that’s simply called “Killer Nog.”
Part of the recipe includes the advice that if you’re going to serve it, you either need to ration it very carefully or plan to have a bunch of overnight guests, so while you’re in the basement digging out the punch bowl, you may as well bring all the sleeping bags out at the same time and have a real party.
Mnemosyne
@Wilson Heath:
I think the Southern Comfort ends up working the same way it turns out that Miller High Life is the best beer to use for beer and cheese soup — by itself, it’s hideous, but it actually adds to the other ingredients when you combine it with them.
If you don’t want to have a giant bottle of it sitting around the house just to make the recipe, a lot of liquor stores (including BevMo) sell the tiny airplane-size bottles of booze.
Yutsano
@bemused: The anterior approach (going from the front) involves more muscle dislocation, but not all surgeons are comfortable doing those. The big argument is getting both done at the same time. That’s highly unusual, but I rally only want to do this once. I have the surgeon picked out, we just need to get to know each other and discuss our options. Moar Jeffries tubes!
Regular Reader
For those concerned about consuming raw eggs, microbiologists at Rockefeller University have actually tested whether alcohol kills potentially harmful pathogens. The result was yes, as long as the nog sits for more than three weeks. And in my experience, that’s a good thing – eggnog really does seem to improve with age:
http://www.sciencefriday.com/video/12/18/2008/another-reason-to-spike-that-eggnog.html
bemused
@Yutsano:
You’ll do fine. I am just amazed at my fil doing so well at his age. We were all pretty nervous when doctors said it was that or in intense pain the rest of his life. The surgeon and hospital staff were great. These joint surgeries have come a long way and the length of time in the hospital shorter. Twenty years ago, I doubt the outcome for someone his age would have been so promising even if they did them on 93 years olds.
Pinkamena Panic
I rooted through the old files until finding my mother’s recipe… sort of:
12 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 pint heavy whipping cream
1 gal(?) Milk
Nutmeg
Separate egg whites and yolks
Beat yolks until light yellow, then gradually add sugar, still beating
Put yolk mixture into fridge
Beat whites until stiff peaks
Whip cream
Fold egg whites into yolk mixture
Fold whipped cream into mixture
Add milk
Sprinkle nutmeg and fold in
Chill
Notice there’s no booze. Alcohol is the ruination of a perfectly good nog. I’ve been drinking this stuff since I can remember and the supposed necessity of alcohol would’ve ruined that.
Then again, I don’t deal with my family during the holidays, so maybe that’s why I don’t feel the need for booze…
jayjaybear
I’m lazy, can’t cook and don’t drink, but you made me crave some eggnog. There’s a local (PA Dutch Country) dairy that makes their own nog to sell starting around Thanksgiving that’s absolutely delicious and addictive. May have to make a short trip in a couple of weeks…
divF
I’ve used the “Egg Nog in Quantity” recipe from the Joy of Cooking for years. I can’t give it here (I’m in a rented house on the Sonoma Coast for the weekend, no cookbooks to be found), but it is along the same lines as yours, with a couple of differences – 100% cream instead half milk, half cream, the cream is mixed in with the sugar and egg yolks to rest overnight, and whiskey or brandy is recommended (I serve it with a bottle of Germain-Robin brandy on the side). The JoC recipe comes with the Mark Twain quote, “Too much of anything is bad, but too much whiskey is just enough.”
currants
@Regular Reader: Thank you for that! I wouldn’t otherwise consider a drink with raw egg in this country.
Hmmm….I’ll have to go take another look at those egg flip cocktails in my book….
SuperHrefna
@Pinkamena Panic: Surely that must be a gill of milk, not a gal?
Me? I don’t eat eggs, hence no nog for me, unless someone out there has an eggless nog recipe? Otherwise I will comfort myself with toddies and hot port & lemon :-)
Arm The Homeless
Been trying out some replacements for refried beans in my baked burrito con chile verde. The vegetarian recipes always seem really runny, or it dries too quickly for a really gooey burrito.
Last week I decided to try over-boiled lentils with a packet of taco seasoning in the water. It seemed to come out delightful after I had them whipped to a fluffy consistency.
Tomatillos are hard to find this time of year for some reason, but found a few green tomatoes, and while not the same spiciness or flavor, they seemed to be a nice, mellow alternative for my picky friends.
ruemara
You need to do a crafter/artist open thread at some time. 4th ER trip of the week this morning at 1. I dread seeing the bill come.
Mnemosyne
Also, too, I think I’m finally going to make these Roasted Banana Bars — summer in the Valley is too hot to cook, but fall is finally here and it’s cooled down considerably, so I won’t make us all miserable by turning the stove on.
currants
@Regular Reader: For anyone interested, the recipe in the SciFri link is as follows:
1 doz eggs
1 qt bourbon
1 pt rum
1 qt heavy cream
1 qt light cream
1/2 lb sugar
nutmeg
Two weeks before Thanksgiving (let’s see, that would be NOW), beat 12 eggs in a bowl, add 1 qt bourbon, 1 pt rum to the eggs. In another bowl, whip 1 qt heavy cream. Add the egg mixture to the cream, add a quart of light cream and half a pound of sugar, then grate some nutmeg in.
Put in the fridge. Taste at Thanksgiving, serve at Christmas. No salmonella.
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
Ugh! If it was your nose again, can you scrape the money together to see an ENT specialist? If you don’t have insurance, sometimes you can call ahead of time and negotiate what your cash payment would be. When I was uninsured, I was able to find a really good dermatologist who was willing to see me for a pretty reasonable price (I think it was $75 a visit to a doctor in Westwood).
Pinkamena Panic
@SuperHrefna: That should say “gallon”. And it might be a half-gallon – I forgot to write that part down when my mother was relaying the recipe to me over the phone.
Svensker
@Eljai: W
Some of the organic nog is really good. See if you get can get the kind that comes in glass bottles at Whole Foods. Mmmm mmmm mmm!
Penn
Does anyone have a good milk-free eggnog recipe? I can just substitute almond milk, but if anyone has it worked out and tested I’d appreciate it.
I love it the normal way, but my wife is allergic to milk, which sucks.
ruemara
@Mnemosyne: I have insurance, but I’m one of those employed types who literally has nothing left once I pay utes, rent and get a bit of food. So I can’t afford to use things that have co-pays and the ER has a very reasonable $50 on under my plan. However, after I do the monthlies, I’m feeling quite good if I have a reserve of $30 for gas etc. I was already budgeting for a car ins payment for next week and reducing the food, the new meds et al. On the positive side, since the newer meds went bust this morning or something, I am certified as very healthy, just with amazing hypertention that is hard to control. I’m like wonder woman but a little ginseng tea sends me to the ER.
Svensker
@ruemara:
No! You OK? That’s awful. Call the billing dept immediately to start working out a deal.
So sorry!
lamh35
Um hmm, ya do dirty in the dark, it will soon come to light!!! Aint’ that some shhh, so apparently his alleged mistress was emailing and harassing another women which she seem to get their contact info from his private account or she was emailing this other person directly from his account!!!
“FBI Said to Have Stumbled Into News of Petreus Affair”
Rosie Outlook
The 1948 Good Housekeeping cookbook has a salad recipe in which the final step is to crack a raw egg into the salad. How far we’ve fallen,
Is anyone outside the U.S. reading this? If so–is the food in your country generally safe?
Svensker
Ima try that SoCo nog (can you buy SoCo in Canukistan?). But you guys should try Puerto Rican egg nog, known as coquito:
2 15-ounce cans coconut cream
1 14-ounce can condensed milk
1 14-ounce can evaporated milk
1/2 cup Puerto Rican rum
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Mix all (use blender if you like). Chill at least an hour (it gets better as it ages, so make a day or two ahead if possible). Drink carefully.
schrodinger's cat
I stay far far away from eggnog usually, it brings back memories of my mother trying to feed me a mixture of brandy and raw egg and honey. Do. not. want.
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
Yeah, sometimes sucky insurance is almost worse than no insurance at all. But getting that hypertension under control is really important — my dad is now on three-times-a-week dialysis for the rest of his life because he ignored his high blood pressure for too long. Uncontrolled hypertension can really screw up a whole lot of your systems in the long run even if you’re currently healthy.
And check which kind of ginseng you’re using — apparently North American ginseng is pretty neutral for hypertension, but Asian ginsengs can mess you up.
Svensker
@Rosie Outlook:
I participate on a food blog and raw egg safety was a recent discussion. According to a German woman, European eggs generally have a much lower internal salmonella count than American eggs. Canadian eggs do, too, apparently because they don’t cram so many chickens into one small cage like big American producers do. Who knew that treating animals relatively well resulted in healthier food for humans?
Mnemosyne
@Svensker:
I read recently that grass-fed beef has much higher levels of omega-3 acids than grain-fed beef, which ironically might explain part of the ADHD “epidemic” since omega-3s are important in keeping ADHD symptoms under control.
(Most of the current research shows that ADHD is actually a memory problem, which is why omega-3s are so important.)
WereBear
@Yutsano: Good luck!
I have a long term hip problem that is yielding to a lot of painful therapeutic exercises. So I know how much it hurts.
Scuffletuffle
@Svensker: This stuff is da bomb….I have a coworker who makes it every year and is a generous sharer!
Yutsano
@Svensker: Hmm…I wonder if I can make that for a work thing sometime. I’ll have to leave the rum out though.
@WereBear: This will go down pretty much like the back surgery did: the hardest part will be arranging the time off work and still being in a paid status. I’ve been really smart about my time off lately so I’m actually building a decent leave bank plus there are methods of padding that further. So that’ll be less I have to advance out, which will help a lot since I’m still in the negative from the back operation. The other parts will be easy: meet the surgeon, determine the date, decide where I’m initially rehabbing, and get back to it.
Svensker
@Yutsano:
Yuts, just be sure if they’re doing both hips at the same time that they do them the same way. Had an aunt who had them done and one leg came out different than the other — they had to go back for a 3rd surgery to even them up. Really pissed her off.
Also, too, while the recovery from the surgery is usually quite rapid, apparently the first week really really really flipping hurts and the first therapy is excruciating. Then it gets better fast. But be prepared. Not to scare you, or anything, but have had lots of family who’ve done this and they all said the same thing: Major pain, then rapid recovery and joy.
WaterGirl
@Svensker: Maybe you can answer a question for me about coconut cream?
Sometimes I get the can and the liquid has kind of a whitish opaque look. Other times It’s all white and thick, not liquid at all. Which is the way it’s supposed to be, and which means it’s been on the shelf too long?
Edit: I think egg nog is kind of creepy, but the recipe you posted sounds good. Except for the weird coconut cream thing, which always *spooks me because I can’t tell if it’s gone bad. I wonder if it’s possible to use the coconut rum instead?
*It spooks me, but that doesn’t keep me from using it to make pina coladas. :-)
SiubhanDuinne
@ruemara: That doesn’t sound good. Hope all is better.
schrodinger's cat
@Yutsano: Good luck with the surgery. Does exercise help? Something gentle like Yoga for instance?
schrodinger's cat
@Arm The Homeless: Have you tried black beans?
SiubhanDuinne
Eggnog story: in 1947, my grandfather had a heart attack, and his doctor prescribed bed rest and a large eggnog, complete with nog, every day (cholesterol, can you imagine? It was a more innocent time. But I digress.) one afternoon my grandmother made his eggnog and put it on his bedside table for a minute while she straightened his sheets and fluffed his pillows and what have you. While her back was turned, my then two-year-old cousin toddler up to bedside, saw the delicious drink of something he (non-alcoholically) loved, and drank it down in one draught.
Needless to say, this was one sozzled baby! The grownups put him in his crib, and for about an hour he sang “Open the Door, Richard”* over and over again at the top of his voice. Then he crashed and slept for 24 hours round the clock.
He’s 67 now, and living in Canada. I hope to see him in a few weeks.
*(Number One Hit Parade song at the time.)
Svensker
@WaterGirl:
Coconut milk or cream will separate on the shelf if it sits long enough — you’ll get the thick/waxy cream at the top and the thinner liquids at the bottom. You can tell if it’s gone off cuz it gets rancid and smells nasty. But otherwise, should be no problem. The canned stuff is pretty much indestructible.
If yours is separated just beat it into warm, creamy submission. Works for me. :)
ruemara
@Mnemosyne: Interesting. I used to take asian ginseng regularly, but long since stopped. I assumed the tea I consumed was American but I really shouldn’t have. I’ve been working with doctors now for 10 years and I hate to say it, but it’s mostly fail exercise. right now my eyes, ears and head are pounding in sync with my heart and it’s hard to look or listen. This is how i know 1 medicine is working.
[email protected]SiubhanDuinne: I think I love this story. Perhaps nog is the key to good health?
Betty Cracker
@Svensker: I have a friend from PR who makes that, and it’s the BOMB! Gotta try making it myself.
RE: salmonella, maybe I should worry about it more, but I don’t. Before I had my own chickens, I used pasteurized eggs to make eggnog and never had an issue. My chickens are healthy, allowed supervised roaming and have a large, clean enclosure, plus I clean the eggs thoroughly before using, so hopefully that’ll be enough to keep salmonella at bay…
Betty Cracker
Yutsano & Ruemara — hope y’all feel better! Pain sucks!
Roger Moore
@Amir Khalid:
It’s not really vindictiveness. The company is doing badly, and they’re laying people off because of that. The coal industry isn’t doing well, partly because it’s dirty and the EPA is actually requiring coal fired power plants to clean up their act, but more because natural gas is a cheaper source of energy right now and people who have the option are moving from coal to gas. Blaming the layoffs on Obama is political theater.
Roger Moore
@Amir Khalid:
It’s not really vindictiveness. The company is doing badly, and they’re laying people off because of that. The coal industry isn’t doing well, partly because it’s dirty and the EPA is actually requiring coal fired power plants to clean up their act, but more because natural gas is a cheaper source of energy right now and people who have the option are moving from coal to gas. Blaming the layoffs on Obama is political theater.
Roger Moore
@Amir Khalid:
It’s not really vindictiveness. The company is doing badly, and they’re laying people off because of that. The coal industry isn’t doing well, partly because it’s dirty and the EPA is actually requiring coal fired power plants to clean up their act, but more because natural gas is a cheaper source of energy right now and people who have the option are moving from coal to gas. Blaming the layoffs on Obama is political theater.
Roger Moore
@Amir Khalid:
It’s not really vindictiveness. The company is doing badly, and they’re laying people off because of that. The coal industry isn’t doing well, partly because it’s dirty and the EPA is actually requiring coal fired power plants to clean up their act, but more because natural gas is a cheaper source of energy right now and people who have the option are moving from coal to gas. Blaming the layoffs on Obama is political theater.
Roger Moore
@currants:
There should be some cooked eggnog recipes out there, where you’re basically making a custard that’s thin enough to drink. My understanding is that’s the original way eggnog was made.
Roger Moore
@Rosie Outlook:
Worries about egg safety are largely overdone. I’ve read somewhere than only about 1 egg in 10,000 has meaningful levels of salmonella, so it’s not as if cracking an egg into your salad is a terrible risk. The risk increases when:
1) You use more than one egg, so that a single bad one can contaminate a whole batch. This is a much bigger deal in food service type cooking than home cooking.
2) The food is allowed to sit around at above refrigerator temperature for long enough for the bacteria to multiply. Also more often a big deal for food service cooking than home cooking.
The case you’re describing, where you crack one egg into something just before serving it is pretty low risk. It’s just that nobody wants to publish recipes where there’s any risk these days, not that eggs are much more dangerous than they used to be.
Ruckus
An uncle, gone for a number of years now used to make his own nog and this sounds about like it with the exception of the Southern Comfort. And I feel the same way, I think I’d rather guzzle antifreeze than SC. Crap tastes like rubbing alcohol with corn syrup. And mixing them didn’t improve the taste of either.
I know this is sacrilege but I like mine out of a carton, Silk Nog. Good for those of us who can’t drink milk. Tastes like mom used to make, not as good as my uncle but very tasty. And I can always add booze but I prefer to just drink the booze straight.
SuperHrefna
@Svensker: That sounds amazingly yummy!
SiubhanDuinne
@ruemara:
I love the story, too. But isn’t it interesting that raw egg, heavy cream, sugar, and booze was the default prescription for cardiac patients back then?
(I now feel obliged to note that my grandfather died a few months later, at the young age of 58.)
Keith
Ahh, eggnog, one of the greatest drinks known to man, right up there with orange Gatorade. I looove store-bought eggnog, since my mother made nearly-flammable homemade stuff when I was a kid. I need to try some homemade stuff that’s a bit easier on the booze to see how it compares to the store-bought.
WaterGirl
@Svensker: I am very late getting back to the thread, but thank you thank you!
I find traditional eggnog disgusting, but I will definitely try your recipe! And now I don’t have to worry about my coconut cream all the time. :-)
Tim in SF
@Roger Moore: Thank you, Roger. Finally a voice of reason. All this pseudo-scieintific, based-on-basically-nothing egg-fear has made this otherwise fabulous thread kind of a pain to read.