Winter Cocktails: Eggnog

Eggnog, the most popular of seasonal drinks, has a clouded history likely due to its old age. It is believed to have derived from the English "posset," a mixture of hot milk curdled with wine or ale and usually spiced that dates back to the fourteenth century. It was prescribed as a cold remedy, and over time became more a drink of leisure, adding egg to the mix and often consumed for breakfast. Milk and eggs, however, were not always easy to come by, and the drink was eventually most popular amongst the higher class. When it was brought to the American colonies where most had their own chickens and cows the drink gained a new popularity. However, the sherry, Madeira wine, or brandy that were traditionally added were scarce or highly taxed, so naturally the Americans added rum instead, which was about as easy and cheap to find as water at the time.

The name "eggnog" has several possible origins, one being simply a simplification of "egg and grog," or "egg'n'grog." Grog was a watered-down rum consumed by sailors in the 17th century. The water taken on-board ships at the time spoiled over time in the sea-soaked barrels, and the rum rations (and earlier ale or wine) were used to mask the terrible taste and conversely to reduce the sailors' intoxication levels. Citrus juice was often added to the mix to combat scurvy. Adding egg to a rum and water mixture could be described as "egg and grog," leading eventually to the drink's modern name.

The suffix "nog," at one point also referred to a strong ale, which could have benefited from the addition of an egg at mealtime or wintertime, leading to "egg and nog."

The more accepted origin of the name is from the word "noggin," referring to a small wooden mug that was often used in taverns to serve drinks at tables (while drinks served near the fire used "tankards"). An egg drink served in a noggin could easily be compounded to "eggnog."

Regardless of the origins, eggnog as we know it today became a staple of American drinking culture, particularly in the colder months likely due to the drink's hearty nature. It was often consumed in a punch style, with copious amounts of sugar, cream, and booze, while being left out at room temperature for days. Making such a drink in warmer weather would have made for faster (or more unbearable) spoilage, which is likely another reason it became a winter drink. Everyone had a good recipe, including George Washington (a particularly boozy one), and by the mid 19th century when Jerry Thomas published his fundamental cocktail book, "How To Mix Drinks," eggnog had become optionally a single-glass drink. Below are two of the most classic of nog recipes, Thomas' single serving Egg Nogg, and his recipe for the drink he claims to have created (though it was later proved actually preceded his birth), Tom & Jerry. I have also included the recipe we use at Pourhouse, where we try to approximate as many drinks as possible to the style and mentality of the Golden Age (1850's-1920's). This recipe is essentially the same, but with less milk and slightly less liquor.

In the coming weeks I will be sharing some modern nog recipes as well, so stay tuned.

Egg Nogg (Jerry Thomas, 1862)
1 table-spoonful of fine white sugar, dissolved with
1 table-spoonful cold water
1 egg
1 wine-glass of Cognac brandy [2oz]
1/2 wine-glass of Santa Cruz rum [1oz]
1/2 tumblerfull of milk [3oz]

Fill the tumbler 1/4 full with shaved ice, shake the ingredients until they are thoroughly mixed together, and grate a little nutmeg on top. Every well ordered bar has a tin egg-nogg "shaker" which is a great aid in mixing this beverage. 

Tom & Jerry (Jerry Thomas, 1862)
5lbs sugar  
12 eggs
1/2 small glass of Jamaica rum [1oz]
1&1/2 tea-spoonful of ground cinnamon
1/2 tea-spoonful of ground cloves
1/2 tea-spoonful of ground allspice

Beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, and the tolks until they are thin as water, then mix together and add the spice and rum; thicken with sugar until the mixture attains the consistence of a light batter. A tea-spoonful of cream of tartar, or about as much carbonate of soa as you can get on a dime, will prevent the sugar from settling to the bottom of the mixture. 

To serve: Take a small bar-glass, and to one table-spoonful of the above mixture, add one wine-glass [2oz] of brandy, and fill the glass with boiling water; grate a little nutmeg on top. 

In David Wondrich's "Imbibe," where he lists so many of these classic Jerry Thomas recipes, 2lbs of sugar is suggested instead of 5, because that's a "crazy amount of sugar." Also, he suggests substituting the hot water for hot milk, "as they often did at the turn of the century." My lady is lactose-intolerant, so I make a fair share of this just with water and enjoy it all the same. If you suffer a similar affliction, I also suggest using almond milk, which has a thicker consistency so will give you that nog texture you want. Also, Thomas himself suggests using a mixture of 1/2 brandy, 1/4 Jamaica rum, and 1/4 Santa Cruz rum instead of just straight brandy. I love making my egg nog with a mix of brandy and rum, anywhere from 3:1 to 1:1.
A final note is that this mixture is easily scaled down. I have made some for small parties of 4 by dividing by 6, for example. Experiment and taste as you go along.

Traditional Eggnog (Pourhouse, Vancouver)
2oz rum
1oz 1:1 simple syrup
1oz whipping cream
1 whole egg

Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake hard to thoroughly mix. Strain into an old-fashioned glass and grate some fresh nutmeg over top.  


More Holiday Drinks!
[["Yukon Cornelius" from Veneto in Victoria ]]
[[ "The Rockefeller" from Veneto in Victoria ]]
[[ The Hot Toddy ]]
[[ Winter drinks from Smuggler's Cove in San Francisco ]]
[[ "Bear Skin" from The Refinery in Vancouver ]]
[[ "Cold & Delicious" from The Violet Hour in Chicago ]]
[[ The history of Eggnog ]]
[[ "Gold," "Frankincense," and "Myrrh" from Trevor Kallies in Vancouver ]]
[[ "Old Saint Juan" from Shea Hogan in Vancouver ]]
[[ "Hot Buttered Rhum Cider" from Slanted Door in San Francisco ]]
[[ The history of mulled wine ]]
[[ The history of The Flip ]]
[[ Hot Buttered Rum ]]

Winter Cocktails: Mulled Wine & Cider (Glögg, Glühwein, & Wassail)

Opening the door to a discussion of mulled wine would result in hours of debate and anecdote, (made all the more difficult if simultaneously consuming said wine). This can be proved simply by listing even a handful of its names and variations: Glühwein, Glögg/Gløgg, vin chaud, greyano vino, izvar, Glintwein, Caribou, Hippocras, Negus, and Feuerzangenbowle. It can have different bases, such as port (called a "Smoking Bishop"), ginger wine and raisins ("Smoking Beadle"), or Champagne ("Smoking Cardinal"). Then there are the mulled ciders, ales, and meads, and the close relation to punch, bringing with it further wealth of history and variation. The number of cultures with a version of this theme is mind-boggling, but the purpose behind the practice is consistently the same.

Before proper storage techniques were invented, food and drink spoiled fairly quickly. One had to be creative to keep food fresh longer or at least to make stale and spoiling food more tolerable (practices that also masked poor-quality products). In Roman times, spices and sugars or honey were added to wines to delay spoilage or mask flavours, typically a practice done in the early winter once the wines harvested in early fall began to stale. This practice dates back to Greece as well, where a wine, spice, and honey mixture called "Hippocras" or "Hypocrace" (supposedly created by Hippocrates as a health tonic) was used and later became popular England for the next thousand years. Other cultures figured out similar strategies for wines and juices and as years passed practical process became tradition.

In Southern England where apples and cider (fermented fruit juice) were an important part of agriculture, a yearly autumn ritual was created sometime before the 11th century called "Wassailing." This was a ceremony celebrated in early January involving drink and song that blessed the health of the trees, scared away evil spirits, and ensured a good harvest for the following autumn. (Wassailing was also a traditional exchange between lords and peasants in the middle ages that encouraged charity, which is the origin of what we consider Christmas Caroling, but has no direct relation to drinking). The drink for this ceremony was aptly named the "Wassail," a heated ale (and later cider) mulled with sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and sometimes fruit, brandy, sherry, and even bread.

By the 18th century, most cultures had a solid tradition and recipe for mulled wine. We will only look at a few of the most popular here: Glühwein and Glögg (pronounced "gloo-vine" and "gluig"). While similar, the differences in alcohol, spice, and garnish are very important to those who carry the tradition. Every town has its own secret recipe, so I am amalgamating the ones I've come across as there are several consistencies. The one thing I don't like in my mulled wine is fruit juice, and this doesn't show up very often save for more modern North American versions. It's not necessary and mutes the spice.

Glühwein (German Mulled Wine, dating to early 15th century)
1 bottle of dry red wine (750ml)
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 lemon or orange, sliced
10 whole cloves
3-5 cinnamon sticks

Pour the wine into a large pot and add other ingredients. Simmer at low heat (do not boil) for 30-60 minutes and serve.
There are MANY options here, including adding some allspice berries, maybe a 1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg, and adding some water should you simmer the wine too long or too hot, which will make it thick and syrupy.
Serve in warmed mugs, and optionally add an ounce of brandy to make things interesting. Do not add the brandy to the heated mixture as the alcohol will boil off.
(Feuerzangenbowle is a Glühwein that leaves a sugarloaf soaked in rum then set aflame sitting atop the wine, slowly dripping sugar into the mix.)

Glögg (Nordic Mulled Wine dating to early 17th century)
1 bottle of dry red wine
1 bottle of port
[2 cups brandy (optionally akvavit or vodka)]
2 cups water
1 peel of orange (the whole orange), cut into strips
10 cardamom pods or about 1/2 tsp of cardamom seeds
10 whole cloves
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup blanched almonds
1 cup sugar (or less to taste)
2 cinnamon sticks
3-5 slices of peeled ginger (optional)

Processes consistently differ, with some boiling the brandy with sugar to create a syrup with which to sweeten the mulled wine and port mixture. Myself, I prefer the highest alcohol content and flavour possible in my drinks, so I prefer to add the brandy last to each mug before serving, as with the Glühwein. The 2 cups of brandy above is a measurement if combining it to the wine mixture while heating, but if you choose not to do this as I have, just measure 1-2oz of brandy per mug before serving. Having said that, here the best process:
Combine wine, port, water, orange peel, cardamom, cloves, sugar (start with 1/2 cup), cinnamon, and ginger in a pot and simmer at low heat for 10 minutes. Add more sugar to taste. At this point you can optionally let the mixture cool and have it steep in the fridge overnight before reheating to maximize the flavour. For those of you like me who are less patient, keep the mixture at low heat for another 20 minutes or so, being careful not to boil. Prepare 10 mugs by warming them and dishing out about 1tsp of almonds and raisins to each, along with the brandy if not used in the first step. Strain mulled wine into each mug and garnish optionally with a fresh orange zest or whole clove (or better yet, an orange zest with a whole clove stabbed into it).
To be further adventurous, you can soak the almonds and raisins beforehand in a mixture of spice and akvavit. Leave them in a sealed bag or container for at least 24 hours with some cardamom seeds, cloves, and cinnamon, and enough akvavit to ensure they're covered. Even just soaking in the akvavit will extract a surprising amount of flavour from the spirit, which includes caraway, cardamom, cumin, anise, fennel, and citrus. For anyone not accustomed the flavour of this spirit, soaking the raisins and nuts and adding them to the mug when served is a subtle and fancy addition of the flavour.

Mulled cider is another very common and fitting winter drink (and is synonymous with Wassail today). I feel it would be redundant to list a recipe here. Following either of the above mulled wine recipes or variations thereof would work just fine if cider is substituted for the wine and the sugar is omitted. For all three drinks, other spices that would make great additions include a little nutmeg, whole star anise, allspice berries, and a few slices of citrus. Broken cinnamon bark can be used in place of cinnamon sticks, though use it more sparingly as it has higher surface area. I again stress that adding the spirit while serving and not while steeping is a better option to ensure full flavour and alcohol.

[["Yukon Cornelius" from Veneto in Victoria ]]
[[ "The Rockefeller" from Veneto in Victoria ]]
[[ The Hot Toddy ]]
[[ Winter drinks from Smuggler's Cove in San Francisco ]]
[[ "Bear Skin" from The Refinery in Vancouver ]]
[[ "Cold & Delicious" from The Violet Hour in Chicago ]]
[[ The history of Eggnog ]]
[[ "Gold," "Frankincense," and "Myrrh" from Trevor Kallies in Vancouver ]]
[[ "Old Saint Juan" from Shea Hogan in Vancouver ]]
[[ "Hot Buttered Rhum Cider" from Slanted Door in San Francisco ]]
[[ The history of mulled wine ]]
[[ The history of The Flip ]]
[[ Hot Buttered Rum ]]

Winter Cocktails: Hot Buttered Rum

Another staple of the winter-drinking season has to be Hot Buttered Rum. If you've never had one, you simply must try the simplest version as soon as you can - especially if it's cold out. Nowadays recipes have gotten very complicated (some of which I'll be sharing throughout the month), but the original really was just rum, butter and hot water, with a little sugar and spice for good measure.

For those unfamiliar you might have exclaimed "butter, you say?," which is understandable, but do remember what your reaction might have been to hearing of cocktails with raw egg for the first time. (I hope by now that's commonplace for you. If not then you are missing many a delicious traditional and modern drink and should get started right away by heading to your favourite bar or at least clicking the "egg" tab on the ingredients list to the right). Butter as a hot-drink ingredient dates back to at least the 16th century when it was used with ale along with the aforementioned sugar and spice as a remedy for a sore throat or lost voice. Like every other medicinal tonic, its use became for pleasure, and spirits replaced the ale as they grew in popularity. Rum is listed specifically for the drink, which was the spirit of choice amongst both the English Navy and the (soon to be) Americans in the late 17th and 18th centuries (see also: Grog).

Like the Toddy, this is a drink that becomes easily over-complicated. That is not to say that the 'updated' versions aren't tasty and well-made, and I'll even be sharing a few this month (including one from Zig Zag in Seattle, and a Hot Buttered Rum Cider from Slanted Door in San Francisco). However, there is something wonderful about the simplicity and honesty of these very old drinks, one of the many reasons why they survive today. Do avoid any addition of juices, cheap liqueurs, or whipped creams though!

For ingredients, use butter and not margarine. The amount is quite small (I go with no more than a teaspoon), and feel free to reduce it, but without it you're making a Hot Spiced Rum, or a Hot Rum Toddy with added spice. Any sugar will do, but Demerara or cane sugar is always best, and don't overdo it. For the spices, you'll get the most flavour and aroma by grinding your own if possible (nutmeg should be grated fresh always, but allspice and cloves are much too small for grating so nobody will judge you if you just use the pre-ground kind). Sometimes I will add a little nutmeg on the top before serving, and if I'm feeling wild and crazy I'll even add a cinnamon stick as a garnish.

As for the rum, the darker the better. Jerry Thomas asks specifically for Jamaica rum in his 1862 recipe (below), which does include Appleton Estate (one of the rums easily found in Canada). I suggest other darker and affordable kinds as well, such as Flor De Cana or Havana Club 7 Year Old, but if you want something much nicer I highly recommend Mount Gay Extra Old or El Dorado. Try anything you have, but light rum doesn't suit the drink. 
If you don't have sugar handy, use the same amount of 2:1 simple syrup, or twice the amount of 1:1.

Hot Buttered Rum (Jerry Thomas, 1862)
2oz rum
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp spices (allspice and cloves)
1 piece of butter as large as half of a chestnut

Fill tumbler with 3-4oz hot water. 

Add the ingredients to a mug first, then top with the water.

[["Yukon Cornelius" from Veneto in Victoria ]]
[[ "The Rockefeller" from Veneto in Victoria ]]
[[ The Hot Toddy ]]
[[ Winter drinks from Smuggler's Cove in San Francisco ]]
[[ "Bear Skin" from The Refinery in Vancouver ]]
[[ "Cold & Delicious" from The Violet Hour in Chicago ]]
[[ The history of Eggnog ]]
[[ "Gold," "Frankincense," and "Myrrh" from Trevor Kallies in Vancouver ]]
[[ "Old Saint Juan" from Shea Hogan in Vancouver ]]
[[ "Hot Buttered Rhum Cider" from Slanted Door in San Francisco ]]
[[ The history of mulled wine ]]
[[ The history of The Flip ]]
[[ Hot Buttered Rum ]]