Tuesday, 23 December 2008
American Cooking in France: Egg Nog
Nothing was missing more from the holidays in France for me than Egg Nog. I used to drink gallons of this stuff back in America, but it's unknown here. Well I don't know what took me so long, but finally this year it occurred to me to see whether I couldn't make my own Egg Nog myself. The good news? It is a success! I now have Egg Nog in France, and it's pretty darn easy to make.
The bad news? Now that I actually know what's in Egg Nog, I'm a little more hesitant to drink it by the gallon!
There are a lot of Egg Nog recipes on the web, most of which are more involved than this one, which I used as my reference; there are a lot of the more elaborate recipes on that same site, though. I went for ease of preparation with my choice of recipe, because my consumption of Egg Nog has always been more about quantity than quality. Below I have modified the proportions a bit on the recipe I linked to, in order to fit in with what works well with French milk bottles.
Ingredients
- 1L milk "démi-écremé"
- 7 eggs
- 3-4 tsp nutmeg ("muscadet" in French)
- 8 tbsp sugar
- 3 tbsp vanilla extract
Preparation
Before beginning, make sure you have something to store the completed Egg Nog with (I use an old water bottle with a funnel). In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs, adding bit-by-bit sugar and milk, finally adding vanilla and nutmeg, and beating thouroughly. Put all in bottle and chill for at least three hours. Serve with a dash of armagnac.
The result is as good as any store-bought Egg Nog I would've had in the States—the only challenge is, that whereas before Egg Nog for me was just the embodiment of the taste of holiday cheer, now one has to drive the notion out of one's mind that one is drinking little more than a mixture of milk and raw eggs! It's good enough stuff that I think I will still be able to enjoy it; but all the same I may reduce my consumption rather more than I would have back in the days when I didn't know what exactly "Egg Nog" contained!
