Aged Eggnog

I just made my first batch of Alton Browns aged eggnog last night. Does anyone have any experience with it or tweaks they’d advise? Other good recipes?

Art of eating has a great piece about it:

Just made our first batch, with the Ruhlman recipe, more or less. More or less, because we didn’t have a full liter of bourbon, so we used a mix of bourbon, rye, rum, and batavia arrack. And we made 4 variations, a 750 of each. One was the base recipe, one had chai spices, one with cardamom and maple liqueur, and one with ca orange peel and hazelnut liqueur.

Can’t wait to see how it turns out.

Yes I make AB’s egg nog every year. Still drinking through my last bottle from last year. I make an extra batch every January and break it out in November. I need to get some more eggs to make another batch for this month.

I LOVE egg nog. Going to have to try this.

I’m going to do this in January. May get in trouble with fridge space, but I’m hoping it’s worth it.

I have a 3 year old batch. I love the stuff.

Do not sous vide, to make omelet.

I let Kenji’s recipe age for a year once and it was delicious!

For those that age for a long time, do you just let it sit or occasionally stir? I’ve noticed after a few weeks all the nutmeg/seasonings are settled at the bottom. I made the AB recipe with rum, bourbon and armagnac.

I let it sit, but to be fair the only reason it aged so long was because it forgot it was in the back of my fridge.

For the uninitiated, how does aging the egg-nog change it’s flavor? I have to admit that I have never heard of aging nog before this year’s threads on the topic, and I’m wondering what to expect. Also, with all of the dairy in the concoction, I’m surprised this is even a thing (obviously the high volume of booze solves for that but it’s still an interesting concept to wrap my head around).

My son just made a batch with Buffalo Trace and a high end rum. He’s bringing home from school so we can try.

It’s interesting, Alton Brown talks about it aging similar to wine in how it takes on more depth and complexity.

It gets smoother and more integrated. It loses all of the body over time from frothing the mixture. What’s left is fully integrated and deep and the alcohol really blends into the background.

Andrew’s comments about blending is how I’d describe it. If you put booze in your eggnog and simply drop in a shot or two into store-bought, you fight some heat and sharpness. In this case you don’t have that. FYI, what you’re really making a baseline mix and adding the cream/milk at the table. You’re not asking your dairy to make it in perpetuity. Due to this you also have the advantage of choosing your cow juice and get ‘the good stuff’ if you feel you can taste the difference between brands or sources.

I already feel like this is better than any eggnog I’ve had before. Of course I chose much better booze and I assume the dairy would be considered higher quality… I’ve already put down about 20% of what I made and have to put the rest in the very back of the fridge so I don’t touch it!

First batch always goes quick. You have to make a batch in late Jan when you’re over with eggnog to save it until next year. You’ll never even remember its there.

I’m definitely going to, very excited for next year already

Pro tip: set a calendar alert in early September of 2021 to make a batch. I have found that 45-60 days provides a material difference.