Eggnog

Eggnog: Step by Step

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1. Whisk the yolks with the 150 g of sugar for 3 minutes until pale and thick.

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2. Heat the milk, cream, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon in a pan until steaming but not simmering.

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3. Pour a third of the hot milk into the yolks, whisking constantly, then return everything to the pan.

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4. Cook over a low heat, stirring constantly with a spatula and scraping the base, until it thickens enough to coat the back of the spoon and reads 77°C / 171°F. This takes about 8 minutes. Do not let it boil.

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5. Strain immediately into a bowl, stir in the vanilla, bourbon and rum, and cool to room temperature.

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6. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours, ideally overnight.

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7. Just before serving, whisk the egg whites to soft peaks, add the 2 tablespoons of sugar and whisk to firm peaks.

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8. Fold the whites through the chilled custard until streak-free, and serve in small glasses with nutmeg grated over.

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Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.

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What Can Go Wrong

1. A thermometer, or the spatula test: draw a finger across the coated spatula and the line should hold.
2. If it does curdle, blitz it with a stick blender for 20 seconds and it will usually come back.
3. It thickens in the fridge. Loosen with a splash of milk before folding the whites in.

Changing the Recipe

• In a sauce, full-fat crème fraîche can usually take the place of the double cream; single cream is thinner and more likely to split if it boils, so keep it below a simmer.

A Little Background

Traditional eggnog uses raw yolks, and the alcohol is doing the food-safety work over weeks of ageing. Cooking the base to 77°C / 171°F gets there in ten minutes instead: the yolk proteins set enough to thicken and any salmonella is gone, and because the mixture never boils the custard stays smooth. Folding whipped whites in at the end is what makes it a nog rather than a milkshake — it lightens a mixture that would otherwise be almost undrinkably rich.

On the Table Alongside

Mince pies · Gingerbread · A cold evening

Keeping Eggnog

Refrigerated for 3 days without the whites. Fold those in on the day you serve it.

Questions People Ask

What's in a Serving

Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. The calories include 8 g of alcohol a serving, which is not part of the protein, carbohydrate or fat. How the figures are worked out.

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