A Decadent Eggnog From a Junior League Cookbook
Eggnog may be second only to fruitcake as a holiday punchline. And why not? It comes up most often as an explanation for otherwise inexplicable behavior at office parties, and the pre-made version in most grocery stores resembles an opaque, insipid quart of 10W-30 motor oil. For the first 30 or so years of my life, I never gave much eggnog much thought. Then, thanks to a lucky day at Myopic Books, the Gourmet's Guide to New Orleans came into my life. The name is misleading—it is, in fact, a Junior League cookbook. Charleston Receipts is probably the most famous Junior League cookbook, but as a rule, they are worth keeping an eye out for when you trawl the cookbook section at your favorite used book store. My copy is the 13th edition, from 1955, but I don't know when the eggnog recipe became part of the collection. After I read the recipe, I knew immediately I had to make it:
12 eggs
1 quart best whiskey
1 quart heavy cream
1 quart milk
8 to 12 ounces rum
8 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons to be added to beaten white
Beat yolks very light, sift in sugar, and beat vigorously. Stir in whiskey, cream, and milk. Fold in the stiffly beaten whites. Put in refrigerator until ready to serve. Extra whiskey may be used if the flavor of rum is not desired. This may be made the day before.
You'll notice a complete absence of any redeeming ingredient. There is a perverse genius in presenting this concoction as something that adults might make and serve to one another. So I made it. It became a holiday party staple. Nobody asks for it at Labor Day, but about once a year, it has its place.
As you approach the end of the gauntlet of holiday parties, I urge you to make this recipe. I would offer a few notes on Mrs. Steven Pierre Cottreaux' recipe:
- 6 tablespoons sugar total is plenty
- Resist the temptation to exercise your whiskey snobbery—a decent Bourbon or Tennessee whiskey is fine. Save the good stuff for a highball glass and maybe an ice cube
- On the other hand, get the best eggs you can—I used some very fresh local eggs this year, and the difference was a revelation. The whites whip up much more stiffly, which means that when they are added to the other ingredients, they add a much-needed dose of ethereality to a mixture of cream, egg yolks, and liquor
- A whole nutmeg Microplaned over each serving is a nice touch
- Consider raising your 'nog in a toast to the good cooks of New Orleans, past, present, and future
About the author: The Gurgling Cod, aka 'Fesser, writes The Gurgling Cod, a blog that is primarily concerned with food. | Photograph from iStockphoto.com
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11 Comments:
In case people are looking for the cookbook, the title is actually Charleston Receipts.
jennews at 10:20AM on 12/18/07
Oh my, this recipe is very similar to my late mother-in-law's recipe. It is divine!
Library Lady at 10:27AM on 12/18/07
Mmmm, sounds delish.
Kerosena at 10:38AM on 12/18/07
I LOVE EGGNOG! The shake shack had an eggnog flavored frozen custard last week, it was AMAZING.
seyo at 10:44AM on 12/18/07
Thanks, Jennews. That was my bad. TGC originally had Charleston Receipts as the title and I changed it thinking it was a typo. (Sorry, TGC!)
Adam Kuban at 11:35AM on 12/18/07
The explanation from Charleston Receipts is:
"Throughout this book, as you will see,
We never mention recipe,-
The reason beint that we felt
(Though well aware how it is spelt!),
That it is modern and not meet
To use in place of old receipt
To designate time-honored dishes
According to ancestral wishes."
The Gurgling Cod at 12:15PM on 12/18/07
I would love to make it, but of course, being the ONLY one in a french household that will even drink it, I need only enough for 2 servings. How many servings does the recipe above make?
jooree at 12:42PM on 12/18/07
That's not a bad question. I know that it went pretty fast, but we had a lot of folks, and people were pouring big or little, as inclination moved them. There is 3-3.5 Q of liquid, + the volume of the eggs, which if you divide by 6 oz puts you in the ballpark of 15-20 servings -- but that is very rough guesstimating. Also, not sure how making a mini quantity would work, in terms of the way the eggs behave. I'd make the whole batch, and foist it on unsuspecing neighbors.
Good luck.
The Gurgling Cod at 1:19PM on 12/18/07
Gurgling Cod, I'm confused by the "4 tablespoons to be added to beaten white". What did I miss? 4 tbs of what?
Kimberly at 2:29PM on 12/18/07
That's how the original receipt* reads -- I surmise that the idea is that you add that much more sugar to the beaten whites, but as I prefer to use less sugar than called for with the yolks, adding that much more sugar seems unnecessary. Basically, ignore the 4 tb to be added. The Jr. league receipts, while fascinating culturally, are sometimes a bit wiggly in their instructions, I suspect because they are culled from index cards or transmitted orally or demonstratively. Add the additional element that in many cases, the actual person doing the actual cooking may be different from the titular Junior Leaguer, and you can see how things can get out of sorts.
The Gurgling Cod at 3:20PM on 12/18/07
Tidewater on the Halfshell is another famous Junior League cookbook from the Junior League of Norfolk-Virginia Beach. Try the tomato pie recipe!
MBinDC at 4:41PM on 12/18/07