While in Europe they love mulled wine at Christmas, in the United States the king of the holidays is another hot, alcoholic drink consumed during the winter season: we're talking about eggnog. It's similar to zabaglione, but its recipe differs in some fundamental ways. It's made with a base of sugar, eggs, milk or cream – or both – to which a distillate is added: usually rum, whisky or brandy. Its origins are quite uncertain, but it's certainly a very ancient recipe: born in England, it reached America, where it is most widely consumed today.
The English Origins of Eggnog
Although today it is considered a star-spangled drink, eggnog actually originated in Britain during the Middle Ages. It is not known for certain where it comes from, but one of the most popular versions is that it originated from another very popular drink in the United Kingdom called posset – not to be confused with the modern lemon posset – made with hot curdled milk to which beer or wine was added, then spiced, and considered, at the time, a medicinal tonic or sleeping pill. Others, however, maintain that it is the work of an English bartender named Carl Joannessons who invented it in 1700 during one of his experiments.
Even the etymology of the term is not very clear: it is a strange, bizarre word, which seems to derive from the union of egg and nog which could indicate a strong beer or derives from the word noggin, translated as "wooden cup".
Evolution in America
When it arrived in the New World, this drink abandoned wine and beer in favor of spirits with a higher alcohol content, such as rum, especially Jamaican rum, which was also more affordable than other spirits. Another theory suggests that before the definitive version of this delight, there was egg'n'grog, where the term grog referred to a mixture of water and rum, popular in the 19th-century Royal Navy, to which egg and spices were then added.
It seems that even the first American president, George Washington, loved it and left his own personal recipe as follows: "One quart of cream, one quart of milk, a dozen tablespoonfuls of sugar, one pint of brandy, half a pint of rye whiskey, half a pint of Jamaican rum, a quarter of a pint of sherry: first mix the liquor, then separate the yolks and whites, add the sugar to the beaten yolks and mix well. Add the milk and cream, beating slowly. Beat the egg whites until stiff and slowly fold them into the mixture. Leave to stand in a cool place for several days. Taste frequently."
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