Homemade Eggnog

When I looked at the eggnog recipe in  my 1896 Boston Cook Book, I didn’t find ingredients like high fructose corn syrup, carrageenan, hydrogenated soybean oil, Yellow #5, milk solids, natural and artificial flavors, and hydroxy something-something… Actually, there were only five, and that’s if you count salt as one. Let’s see… eggs, sugar, milk, salt and brandy, and brandy ‘may be omitted’.

In the old days, eggs were a valuable treat during the winter season, so eggnog really was a luxury. By ‘valuable’ I do mean valuable – egg supply was limited, increasing demand and raising prices. Right around winter solstice the birds start the process of molting – replacing feathers and allowing their reproductive systems to rest. They still hatch, just less. What modern egg industry, including organic, does to the birds to keep them producing all year round is so disturbing that I stopped buying store eggs all together. And the industrial cleaning process involves so many different chemicals that eggs should come with labels saying ‘egg, chlorine, hydrogen peroxide, sodium hydroxide’ because those chemicals do cross the shell barrier (source).

I only buy eggs at farmers markets from people I know, or at my favorite neighborhood store Amish Healthy Foods, that gets their goods from a couple of old school Amish farms. And guess what – last week, when I went there for my weekly restock trip, they were short on eggs.

I would only recommend this recipe if you are able to get local farmed eggs from a source you can trust. Raw eggs have amazing health benefits and using them in an eggnog is an easy way to get your kids to eat them. The recipes from 150 years ago recommended using milk, as opposed to cream, because whole milk, especially from Jersey cows (the brown ones), naturally has a ton of cream in it. The milk I get from Amish Healthy Foods sometimes is as much as one third cream.

NOTES

• This recipe makes enough for my family of five to drink in one meal. I don’t like keeping it longer than that, I just don’t care for the consistency after it sits overnight. But traditionally, folks would safely keep it for several weeks in a cool place, especially with added alcohol.
• Homemade eggnog is more runny than the store-bought stuff. But… it must be a good thing since my kids and my husband can’t get enough when I make it.
• Add nutmeg during mixing because it does add flavor, but most of it will fall to the bottom of the jar, so sprinkling some on top is recommended, plus it looks so pretty!
• Sometimes I add a bit of kefir as well, just a quarter of a cup or less, to have my family get some extra probiotics. It doesn’t change the flavor at all.
• If you prefer thicker consistency – you can whip the cream separately from the egg/sugar part, then mix them together with milk. The thickness will eventually disappear but it will be significantly thicker after you make it, and a few hours afterwards.
• Some recommend whipping egg whites separately and adding them at the very end, to make the nog frothy. I don’t really care for egg whites, and if I use them at all, I just add one or two after the yolks change color, and not for the sake of adding froth.

Print Recipe

Homemade Eggnog

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Servings: 3 cups

Ingredients

• 6 egg yolks from pastured chickens
• 1/4 cup raw cane sugar or maple syrup
• pinch fine sea salt
• 1 teaspoon vanillla extract
• 1.5 cup cream I prefer raw, or non-ultrapasturized, like Kalona
• 1/2 cup milk also raw, or non-homogenized
• 2 tbsps rum or brandy optional
• freshly grated nutmeg to taste

Instructions

• Whisk egg yolks with a stand mixer until they change color to pale yellow, 10 minutes or so.
• Add sugar, salt and vanilla, and whisk until sugar is incorporated.
• Add cream, milk, rum and nutmeg and whisk until everything is smooth and creamy.
• Sprinkle more nutmeg on top right before serving. 

Here is another smaller version that I started whipping together for my kids who are not excited about food while recovering from a cold: