Allison Cooks Alton's Good Eats

It’s a super gray and windy day here, which is sort of forcing us all indoors. Last week I made the recipes from this episode, which just didn’t seem seasonally appropriate. Why is it that eggnog is typically only consumed at the holidays? It must be due to our willingness to allow ourselves to indulge more during the holiday season since eggnog is most certainly a rich treat. Seeing as we are not really allowed to indulge ourselves in many ways right now, maybe now is actually the perfect time to drink a little nog.

My dad would make homemade eggnog when my parents would host holiday parties. I’m almost certain that he used the recipe from The Joy of Cooking. There’s a story about my brother as a young teenager at one of my parents’ parties. Apparently, he liked Dad’s eggnog and helped himself to a little too much. I believe he was lying on the floor under the dining table, and he only recalls hearing my dad say to my mom, “he’s crocked!”

Eggnog

Eggnog is basically just like any custard pie filling. Alton’s recipe here is an uncooked version, but he does also provide a cooked version for those who are concerned about Salmonella.

For the uncooked version, separate four eggs, placing the whites in one large bowl and the yolks in another.

Beat the yolks until they have lightened in color and are thick. Interestingly, the online recipe calls for using a stand mixer to beat the yolks, but Alton explicitly says in the episode that he prefers a hand mixer for this recipe.

With the mixer running, slowly add 1/3 C sugar.

Next, add 2 C whole milk and 1 C heavy cream slowly to the yolks.

Using a microplane grater, grate 1t fresh nutmeg; if your microplane has a plastic sleeve, you can place the sleeve on the back side of the grater to “catch” the nutmeg. Stir the nutmeg into the yolk mixture.

Finally, add 3 oz of bourbon (Alton used Maker’s Mark, which is also what we happened to have), stirring. Place the eggnog in the refrigerator to chill while you tend to the egg whites.

Beat the whites to soft peaks (again, he used a hand mixer here). Once you have soft peaks, slowly add 1 T sugar and continue beating the whites until you have stiff peaks. It’s always fun to invert the bowl over your head to confirm that you have stiff peaks – if no egg white falls on your head, you’re good to go.

Slowly pour the chilled custard into the egg whites, beating on low speed. Chill the finished eggnog thoroughly before consuming.

The eggnog will keep in the refrigerator for a couple days, but you may need to re-froth the mixture with a hand mixer or blender. We drank our nog over the course of three days and I actually thought it maintained its froth very well. It’s been years since I had my dad’s eggnog, but I found Alton’s recipe to be very similar. This eggnog is rich, creamy, and has a perfect layer of  fluffy foam that floats on its surface. While the bourbon is apparent, it does not overpower the nutmeg or the dairy. I would certainly make this again. If you haven’t made eggnog before, keep in mind that homemade eggnog is nothing like the stuff you buy in the stores.

A few years ago, Alton posted a recipe on his web site for an eggnog that you can age for months in your refrigerator. Yes, I’ve tried it, and yes, it is delicious. The aged eggnog is more on the boozy side and lacks the foaminess you get from the egg whites in his un-aged version. Honestly, you can’t go wrong with either recipe.

Eggnog Ice Cream

I mentioned earlier that Alton also provided a recipe for cooked eggnog in this episode. With the cooked recipe, you have the choice of either drinking it or making it into ice cream. Either way, the recipe begins with placing 1 pint of whole milk in a saucepan, along with 1 C heavy cream and 1 t freshly ground nutmeg.

Whisk the milk and cream, bringing it to a boil over high heat.

While the dairy heats, place a metal bowl on top of the saucepan and add 4 egg yolks. Whisk the yolks until they are light yellow and thick. Slowly add 1/3 C sugar. Remove the bowl from the heat when the yolks fall from your whisk in ribbons. Be careful not to cook the eggs. Note that the online recipe does not even call for heating the yolks.

Once the milk/cream is boiling, remove it from the heat. Temper the egg yolks by slowly whisking in the hot dairy.

Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and check its temperature with an instant thermometer – it should be right about 160 degrees. My temperature was quite a bit lower than this, so I continued to heat my custard until it reached 160.

Whisk in 3 ounces of bourbon and allow the custard to cool to room temperature. Refrigerate the custard until thoroughly chilled.

To drink as eggnog, fold in 4 pasteurized egg whites that have been beaten to stiff peaks and serve. Alternatively, to make ice cream, do not add the egg whites. Rather, just chill the custard overnight and churn it in an ice cream maker. Since I had already made the uncooked recipe for eggnog, I churned my cooked eggnog base in my ice cream machine.

I have to say that I was highly disappointed in this recipe because the resulting ice cream tasted very strongly of bourbon and its texture was very icy (probably because of the alcohol content). When I think of eggnog ice cream, I think of a very smooth, dense, dairy-forward dessert, but this lacked all of those traits. I’d look elsewhere for an eggnog ice cream recipe, but Alton’s eggnog recipes are certainly good for drinking.