Saturday, December 23, 2006

Egg Nog!

Today, I've been feeling well enough to make Egg Nog. The end product is most yummy and not Salmonella-inducing, as the eggs are cooked for a good 7 minutes or so. Also, milk can be substituted for the alcohol if kids are present -- or if you just don't drink alcohol.

Here's a picture of the ingredients:


Heat 3 cups of whole milk in a heavy saucepan until it's just barely boiling. In the meantime, whisk together 7 eggs and 3/4 cup of sugar in a large bowl. The recipe says to then pour the milk into the eggs, but if you do that, you're likely to get scrambled eggs and milk, yuck.
So instead, I carefully whisk in milk by the 1/4 cup, pouring slowly with a cup measure and whisking vigorously all the while. The slow rise in temperature keeps things from curdling. No scrambled egg nog, yay!
After the first 3/4 cup or whole cup of milk whisked into the eggs, you can slowly pour in the rest of the milk -- while whisking!

Then, pour the milk/egg/sugar mixture back into the pot and cook on medium low until a thermometer registers 170 degrees (F, not Centigrade!). Pour custard-like mixture into a clean bowl. The recipe says to pour through a fine-meshed sieve, but I've never had to do that. It turns out perfectly smooth every time.

Add 1 teaspoon vanilla, 2 cups of heavy cream, 1/4 cup cognac and 1/4 cup of bourbon or brandy. The original recipe calls for 1/3 cup of both kinds of liquor, for a total of 2/3 of a cup of booze. I like to taste something besides booze. And I don't want to end up under the table after just 1 glass of egg nog!

Here's what the end result looks like:


Yum!

Let cool on the counter, then cover and refrigerate. It tastes even better the next day, after the booze has had some time to mellow.

Enjoy!

10 comments:

Amanda said...

I've only had homemade eggnog once, and it was amazing. Yours looks great, and the recipe doesn't sound too intimidating. Maybe I'll give it a try. I'm glad you're feeling better, and thanks for your kind words about my Odessa.

Rain said...

So glad you feel better.

I've never had eggnog, I find the idea quite scary.

Zonda said...

So glad you're feeling better!

I'll be over in a few...that egg nog looks soooo delicious!! :)

LadyLungDoc said...

Sorry - have never understood the attraction. Maybe if there was chocolate in it.

Batty said...

Come over, one and all! It's not scary to make, and I followed ladylungdoc's advice: tons of booze to kill the germs. : )

To the eggnog skeptics: they also sell pumpkin-flavored eggnog now. Never tried it, but depending on your attitude towards pumpkin, that might be worse.

Pinkwool said...

I'm with Rain and LadyLungDoc, just can't bring myself to drink it. Now I do likes me some punkin flavored stuff but even that is not tempting enough to lure me in! Lol

Glad you are feeling better so you can enjoy your holiday. :)

veritas said...

that looks fabulous. i love custard. i've never had eggnog... sadly christmas here is far too hot to even concieve of it.....

OLPP said...

I need a big big straw!
Thanks for the recipe! So, the eggs are no longer raw then, right? Nice! I've always harbored a smidgeon of fear over that.

I'll have to make some for New Year's Eve!

Bezzie said...

I'm not a big nogger myself. But I like your idea of tempering the eggs. Part of my nog-aversion was the whole raw-egg thing.

picperfic said...

oooh this sounds so delicious...I am going to have a go at this...thank you :) I used to have a drink called a snowball in my teens, it was eggnog and lemonade with a cherry on a cocktail stick balanced on the top, bet this recipe would make a much less vibrant yellow smooth drink yum!