Aged eggnog just isn’t a brand new factor. Googling it can convey up recipes not from overwrought fringe blogs however, relatively, reputable culinary assets. I’ve personally been getting older eggnog in earnest because the winter of 2015, and a few of that inventory nonetheless stays in my fridge. The idea predates not simply experiments of practically a decade in the past, however the web age, too. In truth, George Washington’s printed eggnog recipe in an Outdated Farmer’s Almanac particularly instructs getting older it in a cool place for “a number of days.” I’ve come right here to persuade you that this yr, you must make extra—rather more—eggnog than is affordable for one family, after which age it. For a couple of days, weeks, months—even years.
Whereas it’s confirmed that extended getting older above 14 p.c ABV causes the booze to sterilize any potential pathogens, right this moment’s nog-aging nuts do it for the improved taste. Think about Frederic Yarm, who created a nitro-infused aged eggnog for Cambridge’s Loyal 9 in 2015; or former Porchlight beverage director Nicholas Bennett, whose aged model has turn into so well-known round New York Metropolis that it appeared in Sother Teague’s 2018 guide I’m Simply Right here for the Drinks. And at The Trendy, New York bartender Patrick Smith created a barrel-aged eggnog with crème anglaise and a mixture of brandy, rum, Scotch and sherry in 2018. “It ended up tasting incredible, with the vanilla and spice flavors from the barrel actually tempering the alcohol content material and customarily rounding issues out, whereas by some means additionally making it extra full-bodied and decadent,” he says.
However you don’t want a nitrogen rig or a barrel to do it at house. In the event you poke round on Fb and Reddit, you’ll see that almost all beginner house bartenders appear to observe Alton Brown’s recipe, which first appeared in 2005. It’s the place I began my exploration as effectively. However, within the years since, I’ve decided that aged eggnog just about all the time “works” it doesn’t matter what base spirits you use, it doesn’t matter what specs you utilize—Punch’s most well-liked eggnog recipe from Max Overstrom-Coleman is an efficient place to begin.
You possibly can even combine batches from totally different years. At Pasjoli in Santa Monica, the batch has been going robust for seven years, and at Corvino in Kansas Metropolis, Missouri, the observe began simply earlier than the pandemic’s arrival. “After I took over the bar program at Corvino Supper Membership and Tasting Room in February 2020, I inherited a pair gallons of Adam Chase’s eggnog left over from the vacations,” says Hannah Jones, who was the lead bartender at Corvino and is now the final supervisor on the Resort Kansas Metropolis. “When the entire world shut down a month later … my husband and I have been joking round a few ‘solera-style nog,’ and I made a decision to place Adam’s gallons into mine earlier than sealing them into vacuum baggage to age till Thanksgiving.” The consequence? An eggnog that Jones describes as “liquid gold.”
