I'm so pleased with results of the cooked eggnog I wrote for the last post, I wanted to give an official tested recipe. Don't misunderstand me. I'm a fan of raw egg eggnog, as well as aged-for-two-years raw eggnog. I don't believe anyone should be afraid of eating raw egg (especially if you buy organic or well-raised eggs). Raw yolk on raw ground beef is a delight, a kind of ready made sauce. I love a homemade mayo, a runny poached egg. Indeed, raw or warm egg is one of the great pleasures of cooking and eating. So here's to lots of eggs in 2010—may more of them be laid by healthy happy chickens!
But there are those who may be concerned or have reason not to take any chances. There are also those who may simply love the richness of the cooked egg and the clean flavor the vanilla bean gives it (I also love the creaminess of the meringue—remarkable how sweet and smooth protein can be!). And there are still others who make cooked eggnog because, my favorite reason of all, they simply love to cook.
This eggnog uses the same technique used to make vanilla sauce and almost the same ingredients. The following is a delicious rich beverage, with alcohol or without. In fact, you could omit the additional milk and freeze it into eggnog iced cream and it would be fabulous (a word I intend to keep using well into the New Year). Scale this recipe up and down as much as you like by weighing the yolks, using an equal weight of sugar and six times that amount of milk/cream (in other words, a 6: 1 : 1 ratio of liquid : yolk : sugar—I'll have to add this to my own notes in the new iPhone ratio app!). If you're truly concerned about salmonella, then skip the frothy egg white (use whipped cream if you wish instead).
And one more worthy 2010 resolution (aside from general belly reduction; I actually have to get serious about this this year), a resolution I'd love to hear from more people: resolve to make more dishes from scratch, whether it's chicken soup from a picked clean chicken carcass, your own BLT, macaroni and cheese, your own corned beef, pastrami short ribs, a chocolate cake, mozzarella cheese or a hard cheddar—whatever your skill level or desires, whatever you feel comfortable with (be it a simple popover or elaborate puff pastry)—make your own food, it's good for the body and good for the soul.
All best wishes to all for a healthy productive 2010 with lots of wonderful food and all the things that come from making it and sharing it (which covers just about everything).
Fabulous Cooked Eggnog
1 cup of cream
1-½ cups milk
1 vanilla bean, sliced lengthwise
nutmeg as needed
4 eggs, separated (reserve two whites for another use; they freeze great)
2 ounces sugar (¼ cup), plus 2 tablespoons for the meringue if you're making that
12 ounces (or as much as tastes good!) rum, brandy, or bourbon
Combine the cream, 1 cup of the milk and vanilla bean in a pot, bring it to a simmer, then remove it from the heat. Add plenty of nutmeg shavings. Let the bean steep for 10 minutes, then removed the pod, scrape the inner beans out of the pod and return them to the milk
Combine the yolks and the sugar and whisk to combine. Whisking the yolks continuously, add the milk and cream.
Set a bowl big enough to contain the yolk-cream mixture in a larger bowl filled with a 50/50 mix of ice and water. Put a strainer in this bowl.
Return the yolk-cream mixture to the pot and stir it with a flat-edged spoon or heat-proof spatula over medium heat until the mixture thickens, a few minutes. It should coat the back of a spoon (you can take it as high as 165 degrees F./75 degrees C. if you want to measure). Poor it through the strainer into the bowl set in ice. Add the remaining milk and stir to combine and fully cool the mixture. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Optional: make a meringue by whipping 2 egg whites till frothy, then adding tablespoons of sugar and whipping to very soft peaks (it's best to do this shortly before serving for the best consistency).
To complete:
Combine 4 ounces of eggnog with 2 ounces of rum, brandy, or bourbon; add more nutmeg to taste, then add ice, top with meringue as desired and more gratings of nutmeg.
This recipe should give you about 20 ounces of eggnog.
Live to Cook at Home
Yum! I love egg nog. I'm partial to Hartzler's but will save this recipe in case I decide to make it in the future.
Lydia
This is definitely going to happen this weekend. I'm so glad you said that egg whites freeze well, as I've been freezing the ones left over from my last few batches of ice cream with the intention of making angel food cake when I had enough, but I hadn't actually checked if they would still be good.
Trig
This past week I've had the luxury of eating eggs freshly laid by a neighbour's free range hens. Almost enough to make me settle to village life. Dad gave another neighbour a copy of Ratio - she's been baking for decades and he thought it would make a lot of recipes suddenly make sense for her after all these years. We await feedback. Happy New Year to you and yours.
carri
I'd like to propose a toast...To Michael and Donna, Thanks for making our lives more tasty AND beautiful! (I LOVE my calender!!!) All the Best to you both in the coming new year!
susanne
This looks Fantastic! - my word for 2010.
Happy New Year!
luanda
Wishing you and your family a Happy New Year! Don't stop using the word Fabulous. If something is fabulous, well then it just is. And no other word will do. I may not have made my own resolutions, but I will follow some of yours.
Favorite childhood treat: a couple of raw eggs in the blender, some sugar, a drop of vanilla. Whooosh!!!!! Yum!!!!!!!
Jessika
I take medication that supresses my immune system to manage a serious autoimmue syndrome. Food borne illness can be very serious under such conditions. Hence I avoid raw eggs even though where I live, Sweden, there has never been a recorded case of for ex. salmonella via raw egg. I just prefer not to risk it. It is with some regret though since I just adore steak tartare and tiramisu. I will try this cooked egg nog. if you have ideas for how to prepare "cooked" tiramisu, I wouldn't mind the suggestion..
Tom K.
An effective first (and painful) step to belly reduction is find substitutes for cream, whether the recipe be eggnog or macaroni and cheese. The amount of saturated fat in cream is truly mind-boggling.
Probably not what you wanted to hear on a day that should be upbeat, but belly reduction is serious stuff.
It gets easier when warm weather returns and farmers markets get back into gear.
Good luck!
Wilma de Soto
Thanks for making 2009 a great culinary adventure. A Happy and Healthy 2010 to you, Donna and Kith.
Susan @ SGCC
Happy New Year, Michael. Thanks to you and Donna for continuing to inspire me and millions of others. I hope that your 2010 is filled with many wonderful and delicious things!
Andy
Great recipe. I just made it the other day and it was scrumptious. On my comment on the last posting of the recipe, I said it sounded like a light creme anglaise. I was wrong the cream brings up the butter fat and it is quite luxurious. You could subtitute that cup of cream with milk for a leaner result. For those that are really concerned about the raw egg white meringue you could always opt to make an italian meringue and you would have all your base covered. Yes this would make a great ice cream to accompany pumpkin or pecan pie.
Thanks Michael and Happy New Year.
mel in austin
i unexpectedly baked cookies last night at a party---
--recipe free
--on demand
thank you!!!
allen
Go with the uncooked version, been tried and tested by yours truly this holiday season - plenty of it. Although the belly reduction is a prime concern for this coming year, I have a serious batch of the year old eggnogg for next year. I'll pay for it at the gym and try to eat less, but that uncooked stuff is safe and darn good. Happy New year!
S Lloyd
I love your recipes. Well written and easy to follow.
Tell me: what type of Digital SLR Camera are you using for those amazing close up sharp pictures? Thanks
Donna Turner Ruhlman
To S Lloyd—I just posted under Food Photos some info about taking this shot. For 98% of the food photos I take, I use a macro lens fixed at 55mm. It's a 20 plus year old Nikor manual focus and I use it on my D200 Nikon SLR.
Happy New Year to All—Have a fabulous, fantastic and deliciously scrumptious 2010!
Rebecca
My husband is a big fan of "Ratio" and mentioned this recipe on the blog. Compared to some of the raw egg recipes I've tried I have to say this one was rather disappointing. The delicious flavor was still there, but in terms of effort, cost, and resulting texture the outcome was less than hoped for. Still looking forward to trying other recipes on the blog!
seriousdarious
Sorry if this questions has already been asked/answered but I didn't have a chance to read all the comments. I notice that you scrape the bean after steeping. Is there a substantive difference between scraping before (and adding both seeds and pod) and scraping after? Thanks for a great site. I've got Ratio sitting in my "to read" pile and I'm looking forward to diving in.