"Eggnog" by President George Washington
I’ve been eyeing this one up for a while, honestly. But you can’t make eggnog in springtime — it is simply not done. Even in the dead of a cold, bitter, Los Angeles winter, I’m not sure if the boozy thickness of this nog is too much. I’ve never sipped on something so….American.
Chef George Washington
The First President of the United States
As always, I followed the recipe word for word from the earliest politician featured here on Cookin’ with Congress (by default, I guess), no alterations:
INGREDIENTS
1 pint brandy
1/2 pint rye whiskey
1/2 pint Jamaican rum
1/4 pint sherry
12 eggs
1 tbsp sugar
1 quart cream
1 quart milk
INSTRUCTIONS
1) Mix liquors together first.
The total amount of liquor here is 38oz, about the equivalent of 19 cocktails.
2) Separate yolks and whites of eggs. Add sugar to beaten yolks and mix well.
3) Add liquor to beaten yolks, drop by drop first, and slowly beat.
4) Add cream and milk, slowly beating.
You’ll notice there is a lot of slow beating here. That’s because you don’t want to turn it into whipped cream, and you don’t want to agitate the egg yellows too much. Keep them nice and raw.
5) Beat whites of eggs until stiff and fold slowly into mixture.
I did this by hand, just like George Washington would have, and it took forever. At least 7 minutes with breaks in between. Finally got it stiff peaks, but it wasn’t stable because the recipe didn’t call for cream of tartar, sugar, lemon, vinegar — nothing. Nothing to keep the egg whites stabilized. So it turned slightly foamy, like egg soap.
6) Let set in a cool place for several days; taste frequently.
I did not taste frequently.
Voila! If you want to actually watch me attempt to eat it, go to the CwC Instagram or TikTok. Storing 12 raw eggs, milk and cream at room temperature felt wrong, even with the immense preservative qualities of high proof alcohol. But I did it. And the final product is….very creamy. It has none of the yellow tint I was expecting to see that you might find in an eggnog recipe that actually heats up the yolks. Instead, it looks like a gallon of tinted milk and smells like whiskey. Hope you’ve got 20 friends to help you drink it! Or 60.
Verdict:
Boozy. Like chugging spiked cream, it’s more similar to a White Russian than eggnog to me. Without nutmeg on top, it’s two notes: liquor and milk. Liquor-milk. Merry Christmas!
