Eggnog

Last year I made aged eggnog with raw eggs, according to the famous Cook’s Illustrated recipe. When I came to make this year’s batch I found the list of ingredients easily enough, but the actual protocol is now available only to subscribers.

So I decided—in the best traditions of magirism—to make one up.

I separated my dozen eggs and beat the yolks with 12 oz caster sugar.

Then I stirred in 12 fl oz Jack Daniels, followed by 4 fl oz cognac and 4 fl oz dark rum. (You’ll note these are converted from US ‘cups’—and a touch more rum simply because (a) there were 4 fl oz left in the bottle and (b) I like rum).

I beat the whites until frothy so that the custard has a bit of structure, then combined with the yolk/sugar/booze mix. This takes some mixing, so I might go back to it over the next 3 weeks to ensure it’s well mixed as it sits in a Tupperware in the fridge.

The recipe calls for 6 cups (=just shy of 2 1/2 pints) milk and 1/2 cup of cream in the whole batch. As we’re planning our traditional pre-Christmas friends and neighbours pies and mulled wine party in about 3 weeks’ time, I might make up the entire batch and see how it goes down. Apparently it will keep for a year anyway (maybe more rum should be added in that case). I’ll probably use more cream than that, whip it, and combine until it feels right.

Because that’s what it’s all about, yes?