National Eggnog occurs annually on 24 December. Eggnog is a rich, chilled, sweetened, dairy-based beverage traditionally consumed over Christmas. It is made with milk, cream, sugar, whipped egg whites, and egg yolks (which gives it a frothy texture, and its name). In some contexts, distilled spirits such as brandy, rum, whisky or bourbon are added to the drink. eggnog is served throughout Canada and the United States, from late November until the end of the holiday season. Eggnog has also gained popularity in Australia. A variety called Ponche Crema has been made and consumed in Venezuela and Trinidad since the 1900s, also as part of the Christmas season. During that time, commercially prepared eggnog is sold in grocery stores in these countries.
The origins, etymology, and the ingredients used to make original eggnog drinks are debated. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, nog was “a kind of strong beer brewed in East Anglia”. The first known use of the word “nog” was in 1693. Alternatively, nog may stem from noggin, a Middle English term for a small, carved wooden mug used to serve alcohol. However, the British drink was also called an Egg Flip, from the practice of “flipping” (rapidly pouring) the mixture between two pitchers to mix it. One dictionary lists the word “eggnog” as being an Americanism invented in 1765-75.
the term ‘Eggnog” is a combination of two colonial slang words — rum was referred to as grog and bartenders served it in small wooden mugs called noggins. The drink first became known as egg-n-grog and later as eggnog.” Ben Zimmer, executive editor for Vocabulary.com, disputes the “egg-n-grog” theory as lacking proof; Zimmer states that the term “nog” may be related to the “Scottish term nugg or nugged ale, meaning “ale warmed with a hot poker.”
The Online Etymology Dictionary states that the term “egg nog” is an American term introduced in 1775, consisting of the words “egg” and “nog”, with “nog” meaning “strong ale”.The first example of the term “eggnog” was in 1775, when Maryland clergyman and philologist Jonathan Boucher wrote a poem about the drink which was not published until 30 years after his death: The first printed use of the term appeared in the New-Jersey Journal of March 26, 1788, which referred to a young man drinking a glass of eggnog. An 1869 dictionary entry for “egg nog” defines it as a mixture of wine, spirits, eggs and sugar; there is no mention of dairy products.
Eggnog originated from the early medieval” British drink called posset, which was made with hot milk that was curdled with wine or ale and flavoured with spices. In the Middle Ages, posset was used as a cold and flu remedy. Posset was popular from medieval times to the 19th century. Eggs were added to some posset recipes; according to Time magazine, by the “…13th century, monks were known to drink a posset with eggs and figs.” A 17th century recipe for “My Lord of Carlisle’s Sack-Posset” uses a heated mixture of cream, whole cinnamon, mace, nutmeg, eighteen egg yolks, eight egg whites, and one pint of Sack wine (a fortified white wine related to sherry). At the end, sugar, ambergris and animal musk are stirred in. Posset was traditionally served in two-handled pots. The aristocracy had costly posset pots made from silver.
Eggnog is not the only mixed, sweetened alcohol drink associated with the winter season. Mulled wine or wassail is a drink made by Ancient Greeks and Romans with sweetened, spiced wine. When the drink spread to Britain, the locals switched to the more widely available alcohol, hard cider, to make their mulled beverages. During the Victorian era, Britons drank purl, “a heady mixture of gin, warm beer, sugar, bitter herbs, and spices”. In the Colonial era in America, the drink was transformed into an “ale-and-rum-based flip” warmed with a hot poker.
Alcoholic drinks were originally served in wooden cups called “noggins”.
In Britain, the drink was originally popular among the aristocracy. “Milk, eggs, and sherry were foods of the wealthy, so eggnog was often used in toasts to prosperity and good health.” Those who could afford milk and eggs and costly spirits mixed the eggnog with brandy, Madeira wine or sherry to make a drink similar to modern alcoholic egg nog.
The drink crossed the Atlantic to the British colonies during the 18th century. Since brandy and wine were heavily taxed, rum from the Triangular Trade with the Caribbean was a cost-effective substitute. The inexpensive liquor, coupled with plentiful farm and dairy products available to colonists, helped the drink become very popular in America.[18] When the supply of rum to the newly founded United States was reduced as a consequence of the American Revolutionary War, Americans turned to domestic whiskey, and eventually bourbon in particular, as a substitute.[9] In places in the American colonies where even bourbon was too expensive, homemade moonshine spirits were added to eggnog. Eggnog “became tied to the holidays” when it was adopted in the United States in the 1700s. Eggnog “…seems to have been popular on both sides of the Atlantic” in the 18th century.
Records show that the first US President, George Washington, “…served an eggnog-like drink to visitors” which included “…rye whiskey, rum, and sherry.” The President’s recipe called for a variety of alcoholic beverages along with the dairy and egg ingredients: “One quart cream, one quart milk, one dozen tablespoons sugar, one pint brandy, 1/2 pint rye whiskey, 1/2 pint Jamaica rum, and 1/4 pint sherry.” The recipe instructs cooks to “mix the liquor first, then separate yolks and whites of eggs, add sugar to beaten yolks, mix well. Add milk and cream, slowly beating. Beat whites of eggs until stiff and fold slowly into mixture. Let set in cool place for several days. Taste frequently.”
“Tom and Jerry is a form of hot eggnog cocktail that was once popular.”The Tom and Jerry was invented by British journalist Pierce Egan in the 1820s, using brandy and rum added to eggnog and served hot, usually in a mug or a bowl. It is a traditional Christmastime cocktail in the United States.
Isaac Weld, Junior, in his book Travels Through the States of North America and the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, during the years 1795, 1796, and 1797 (published in 1800) wrote: “The American travellers, before they pursued their journey, took a hearty draught each, according to custom, of egg-nog, a mixture composed of new milk, eggs, rum, and sugar, beat up together;…” In a similar way to how posset was drunk as a cold remedy in the Medieval era, there is evidence that eggnog was also used as a medical treatment. An 1892 scientific journal article proposes the use of eggnog to treat “grippe”, commonly known as the “flu”, along with ammonium chloride to treat the cough and quinine to cure the illness.
In the American South, eggnog is made with bourbon. Eggnog is called “coquito” in Puerto Rico, where rum and fresh coconut juice or coconut milk are used in its preparation. Mexican eggnog, also known as “rompope”, was developed in Santa Clara. It differs from regular eggnog in its use of Mexican cinnamon and rum or grain alcohol. In Peru, eggnog is called “biblia con pisco”, and it is made with a Peruvian pomace brandy called pisco.”[9] German eggnog, called “biersuppe”, is made with beer. “Eierpunsch is a German version of eggnog made with white wine”, eggs, sugar, cloves, tea, lemon or lime juice and cinnamon. Another recipe dating from 1904 calls for eggs, lemon juice, sugar, white wine, water and rum. In Iceland, eggnog “…is served hot as a dessert.”
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