Eggnog is an unusual and under-appreciated cocktail, often associated with Christmas, a kind of sweet dairy-based punch spiked with your favourite booze and enjoyed cold. Essentially a cake in liquid form, without the flour. Perhaps it’s the name, which sounds like some sort of Victorian child’s game, but it always seems to have a somewhat comic reputation, belying its complexity.
Yet a well-made eggnog is an extraordinary treat, packed with flavour, spice, depth and texture; a drink that’s genuinely unlike anything else on a cocktail menu. And yes, it is really made using eggs. Lots of eggs.
A traditional recipe will include milk, cream, sugar, raw whisked eggs, vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon and your own choice of wine or spirits, whether that’s sherry, port, rum, whiskey, bourbon or brandy. Sometimes all together. Then you’ve got to put it all in the fridge and wait until it’s cold and almost set.
It’s a drink that may feel quite modern and ironic, but eggnog has an ancient backstory that can be traced to medieval Britain. But before we go there, let’s establish when, why and how the name came about...
The first known written reference to the name eggnog was on or immediately around 1774 in a poem written by Jonathan Boucher, an Anglican clergyman from England living and preaching in Maryland, USA. (The year is a little unclear as the poem was only published 30 years after it was written but is likely correct).
His life reads like a crazy film – he became a family friend of George Washington, soon to be first president of the USA, yet remained such a fervent loyalist during the American Revolution that started in 1775 that he apparently took to keeping pistols in his pulpit while conducting services. No wonder he was later expelled back to the UK!
Boucher’s book was a ‘pastoral’, a type of genre literature that combines both prose and poetry, often reflecting the natural world. It was rather verbosely titled: ‘Absence: A Pastoral: drawn from the life, from the manners, customs and phraseology of planters (or, to speak more pastorally, of the rural swains) inhabiting the Banks of the Potomac, in Maryland’. What a mouthful.
It was essentially a book about words and the oddities of language he picked up while in the ‘colonies’, which included ‘egg-nogg’. In the introduction, he writes:
"A List of some of the most remarkable and common [words], collected during my residence in Virginia and Maryland nearly thirty years ago, is here set down at the foot of the page. To this list I will subjoin a copy of verse, which I have ventured to call a Pastoral, written during my residence in America; written solely with the view of introducing as many of such words and idioms of speech, then prevalent and common in Maryland, as I conceived to be dialectical and peculiar to those parts of America.”
The key bit of text for our research is:
“Fog-drams i' th' morn, or (better still) egg-nogg,
At night hot-suppings, and at mid-day, grogg,
My palate can regale…”
So while Boucher’s poem is officially the earliest reference in 1774, it wasn’t actually published until 1804 – perhaps opening the door to another ‘first’ claim by Philadelphia’s newspaper The Independent Gazetteer. On 16th October 1788, a rather philosophical and abstract article mentioning eggnog appeared:
Rummaging now the brain, many conceits may be found, much truth of all kinds, whole store rooms of curses and unmentionable damns, with devils of all shapes and colours, thousands of encomiums on oysters, hot suppers, and devilish fine wines; and there are so many different qualities and dispositions that intestine wars are never over; when wine and beer, punch and eggnog meet, instantly ensues a quarrel, and it is raised so high, that the brains boil like mush in a pot with heat, and was it not for the holes I before mentioned, which let out the steam, the skull must be cracked.
From the 1790s, references to eggnog started to flood in – it was clearly a very popular drink in the Americas, where fresh milk, cream and eggs were plentiful (they were surprisingly hard to find and expensive ingredients in the UK).
Perhaps the earliest proper recipe (of sorts) for eggnog was in an American travelogue by Isaac Weld printed in 1800 but detailing his travels in the late 18th century. Called Travels through the States of North America, and the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, During the years 1795, 1796, and 1797, he observes some fellow travellers at an inn near Baltimore on the road to Philadelphia:
The American travellers, before they pursued their journey, took a hearty draught each, according to custom, of egg-nog, a mixture composed of new milk, eggs, rum, and sugar, beat up together.
And where did the name come from? Strap in…
The word ‘nog’ dates back to the late 1500s in the UK, used to describe a small wooden cup or mug. By the 1690s, the word ‘noggin’ came to mean a small measure of alcohol, around a quarter of a pint, so you’d effectively be putting your noggin in your nog. And all that noggin would make you ‘noggy’, or drunk in the head, which might be why ‘noggin’ later came to mean ‘head’ as in ‘use your noggin’. It could also have been to do with the popular trend of shaping alcohol mugs (nogs) into grotesque caricatures of heads to drink from. Add to this etymological puzzle the word ‘grog’, which meant a strong beer or hard booze, like rum. So eggnog is probably an amalgamation of all these things, maybe used by early British colonists in the USA to describe their traditional drink as ‘egg-and-grog’, which was later shortened to eggnog. Phew.
Like everything great, the recipe for eggnog was an evolution of something much older, seemingly originating from a rather grand medieval British cure-all drink called posset.
The dictionary definition of a posset is ‘a drink made of hot milk curdled with ale, wine, or the like, often with sugar and various spices.’ It was first mentioned in the Boke of Nurture written by John Russell in 1460, a beautifully observed and detailed guide to the behaviour, dress and manners expected of courtly gentlemen in the UK. (It’s worth noting that although this is the first written reference, the book wasn’t published until 1867 – the printing press wasn’t even invented until the 1470s – so would have been originally handwritten). It describes a possate as:
Milke, crayme, and cruddes, and eke the Ioncate,
þey close a mannes stomak / and so dothe þe possate;
þerfore ete hard chese aftir, yef ye sowpe late,
and drynk romney modoun, for feere of chekmate.
And for those without a medieval ear, here’s a translation:
Milk, cream, and curds, and also the junket,
they close a man’s stomach, and so does the posset.
Eat hard cheese before and after, if you sup late
And drink sweet wine for fear of a misfortune
This early version of eggnog was a much-loved delicacy, often touted as a remedy for colds and flu (the alcohol was used to open blood vessels and provoke sweating), so unsurprisingly used as a toast to health and prosperity. So popular was this warm drink that it appeared in three Shakespeare plays (Hamlet, Macbeth and The Merry Wives of Windsor), with the most dramatic reference being when Lady Macbeth slips poison into the possets of the guards outside Duncan’s quarters so they wouldn’t stop her murderous plot.
Over the centuries, alcohol was added more and more, probably by monks, who also threw in whipped eggs to give it a more custard-like texture.
By the mid 17th century, a well-made posset was said to have three different layers – and was presented in a specially made posset pot that resembled a kind of teapot with a spout coming from the bottom.
The posset’s top was known as the grace, a light and delicate foam crust, formed by breadcrumbs, grated biscuits or oatmeal, which would float to the top. The middle was a smooth, thick spicy custard. And the bottom was where the alcohol sat, known as sack. The top and middle layers were eaten as ‘spoonmeat’, and the alcohol below poured directly into cups through the spout to leave the edible lid untouched. Poorer possets were made with beer and thickened with bread.
Apart from being delicious, the beauty of the posset was it could be enjoyed at the beginning or the end of a meal, a filling finish or a way to perk up your palate.
And before refrigeration and pasteurization, the addition of alcohol made the milk safer to drink (it was often contaminated and reviled in the 1600s).
As the drink became more popular in the upper classes, the alcohol used to make it became more expensive, things like sherry, madeira, port or brandy, until the cocktail started to be used as a sign of wealth and status thanks to its increasingly hefty price tag. In 1671, an English courtier and diplomat called Sir Kenelm Digby wrote down a recipe called ‘My Lord of Carlisle’s Sack-Posset’, which used 18 egg yolks and a pint of sherry. Yes, a pint.
“Take a pottle of Cream, and boil in it a little whole Cinnamon, and three or four flakes of Mace. To this proportion of Cream put in eighteen yolks of eggs, and eight of the whites; a pint of Sack; beat your eggs very well, and then mingle them with your Sack. Put in three quarters of a pound of Sugar into the Wine and Eggs, with a Nutmeg grated, and a little beaten Cinnamon; set the Bason on the fire with the Wine and Eggs, and let it be hot. Then put in the Cream boiling from the fire, pour it on high, but stir it not; cover it with a dish, and when it is settlede, strew on the top a little fine Sugar mingled with three grains of Ambergreece, and one grain of Musk, and serve it up.”
A century or so later, doctors were still prescribing possets (now masquerading as eggnog) for dysentery, typhoid and TB to get nutrients into patients on liquid diets – the eggs bringing essential fats and vitamins and the spices relieving the effects of cramps and nausea. Later, in 1884, there’s an eggnog recipe written in A Nurse’s Journal: “To a tumblerful of milk add one egg, well beaten; sweeten to taste. Tablespoonful of brandy, whisky or port wine.”
While eggnog might have been flourishing in the UK, it was positively booming in the USA, the refined European wines and brandies replaced with cheaper and easier to find spirits like rum, bourbon and whiskey.
George Washington is supposed to have had his own eggnog recipe he served to guests at Mount Vernon, his family estate in Virginia, at Christmas (although this could be apocryphal). It contained a pint of brandy, a half pint of rye whiskey, a half pint of dark rum and a quarter pint of sherry.
The earliest written reference to eggnog being a Christmas drink seems to be in a local newspaper from Richmond, Virginia, called The Constitutional Whig on 29th December 1826.
“The season of rapture and festal delight,
The time to be merry and happy has come.
Away then with sorrow – put thinking to flight –
And give us our egg-nog, our mince-pies and rum!”
Later, a letter written on 25th December 1846 was published in Louisville’s Courier Journal, describing soldiers enjoying eggnog on leave: “Eggs are very plenty and very cheap, and lots of eggnog are to be drunk. The 'boys' are bound to do it." On 31st December 1859, The Chicago Tribune told how politicians in the House of Representatives were getting stuck into the eggnog in a big way.
"Eggnog has ruled the country today. It is a famous drink in public and private houses in Washington on Christmas, and some of the members, in spite of it, reached the house today at noon, and some, in consequence of it, did not get there at all."
Not confined to just the UK and USA, eggnog has become a festive favourite all over the world and comes complete with subtle regional variations to enjoy.
In Mexico, it’s called rompope or ponche de huevo and is made with Mexican cinnamon, vanilla and rum. Puerto Rico uses fresh coconut milk. Peruvians make biblia con pisco with pisco. Germans use evaporated milk and rum (eierlikör). And sometimes beer (biersuppe). And sometimes white wine and orange juice (eierpunsch). In Italy it’s called a bombardino. The Dutch have bottles and bottles and bottles and bottles of Advocaat.
It seems like eggnog has been our constant companion since medieval times, like a comfort cocktail constantly waiting in the wings and only getting its time in the spotlight at Christmas. It’s gone through many incarnations, names and uses, from cold cure to festive favourite, and has inspired poems, Presidents and perked up patients along the way. Despite its faintly comic reputation, and an army of sneery mixologists, it has stood the test of time and has become a bit of a national treasure. So it seems appropriate to end on a rather perfect quote from an unnamed English eggnog lover in 1866:
“Christmas is not properly observed unless you brew egg nogg for all comers; everybody calls on everybody else; and each call is celebrated by a solemn egg-nogging… It is made cold and is drunk cold and is to be commended.”
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