History-loving cocktailians Jared Brown and Anistatia Miller, who are cowriting a history of alcohol called A Spirited Voyage Through Civilization, have found records of eggnogs (just not so named) in England as far back as Elizabethan times. They have uncovered varieties from England and the New World made with rum, Cognac, brandy, whiskey, and bourbon, as well as those sweetened with brown sugar, molasses, and even dried pumpkin. "There have always been variations on eggnog," says Brown. Even now, "It's one of those rare drinks, like the Bloody Mary, that has never been truly standardized."
Eggnog, then, is less a single drink than it is a family of drinks, closely related to the egg flips and possets of yore. Brown and Miller believe that it most likely evolved from egg drinks made with wine and strong ale, the latter of which people in the area of Eastern England known as East Anglia used to call "nog." (That this potent ale went straight to the drinker's head, say Brown and Miller, may have given rise to the word "noggin.") The duo doubt, however, the popular theory that the word "eggnog" developed as an abbreviated form of the phrase "egg and grog."
Eggnog's descendants used to be cooked not by gradual addition of hot milk but by a visit from a scalding-hot poker. "They were thoroughly revolting, to be honest," says Brown. "I made one and couldn't even bring it to my lips." Still, people drank them happilyoften for breakfastand considered them as fortifying and warming as we consider today's 'nog. The name of one 17th-century English drink, Yard of Flannel, made with eggs, cream, nutmeg, rum, and hard cider, said this loud and clear.
When we asked them to share a recipe for eggnog, Miller went racing for their voluminous notebooks to find their favorite. Here it is, no hot poker required.