by Leilehua Yuen
Egg Nog
This delicious egg nogg is best made with farm fresh eggs from healthy free-range hens. Know your farmers, so you can buy healthy pathogen-free eggs! For those who do not have access to such delicacies, there is a cooked version following.
Bertha’s 1887 Egg Nogg
Yes, that’s how it was spelled in 1887! This recipe comes to us from my great-grandmother Bertha Stephenson. Since even whole milk has a lower fat content than what my great-grandmother got from her neighbor’s cow, if you want to achieve the old-fashioned flavor with commercial milk, make a 50/50 blend of whole milk and half&half.
- 12 eggs (room temperature)
- fine white sugar
- 1 glass brandy
- 1 glass old whisky
- 1 nutmeg
- 3 pints rich milk
You’ll want a large saucepan, enough to comfortably hold 3 quarts. Beat the yolks of 12 eggs very light, stir in as much fine white sugar as they will dissolve. Pour in gradually one glass of brandy to cook the eggs. Beat well. Gradually add one glass of old whisky and beat well. Add three pints milk into which one nutmeg has been grated. Beat well. Last, beat the egg whites to a froth and gently stir in.
Cooked Eggnog
- 12 eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 cups milk
- 3 cups half&half
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- shaker of nutmeg
Use a saucepan or stock pot large enough to comfortably hold 3 quarts. In the saucepan, beat together the eggs and sugar until smooth, then stir in 2 cups milk and cook over medium low heat, stirring constantly. I like a wire whisk. Keep the mix moving because it scorches easily. Cook until it reaches 160° on a food thermometer, then remove from heat.
Slowly add the 2 cups half& half, vanilla, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Whisk together thoroughly. Serve hot or chilled. Add brandy, whiskey, or rum just before serving.
Holiday Gifts
Books are wonderful holiday gifts. Frontier Sourdough follows a family from Huguenot France to the American west.
This pastiche of the The Blue Carbuncle, the only Sherlock Holmes Christmas story Doyle wrote, is set in Hawaiʻi, and contains holiday recipes!