Vintage Christmas Ads & An Eggnog Recipe -

It’s 1964 and Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce is limping into ’65 in serious financial trouble. They want to have a laid back Christmas party, well they have to have a laid back party because the budget can’t account for anything else. But Roger Sterling finds out that the heir to the Lucky Strike throne, Lee Garner, Jr., is in town. Lucky Strike, a client that just so happens to account for 73% of the SCDP client base.

Lee loves a party and invites himself to the event. Joan comes to the rescue and puts the party together last minute. Garner shows up hammered and keeps humiliating Roger Sterling, who has to just take it. It’s a pretty awesome episode.

I love how awkward it is.

If you’ve been following us you’d know, we love Mad Men almost as much as that rich assbag Lee Garner Jr like’s his sauce. So here’s a Mad Men themed drink recipe.

Mad Men Boozy Eggnog Recipe

I have the Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook by Judy Gelman and Peter Zheutlin and they have a couple of eggnog recipes there. I never made homemade eggnog so I thought what the hell, what’s the worst that could happen? My wife and I get salmonella? Tis the season right?

*Here’s a vintage infographic recipe. Don’t know where it’s from.*

This is adapted from a recipe in The Post Standard, Syracuse NY. It yields 20 half-cup servings. I halved the recipe because it was just the two of us but if you’re having a party, go whole hog.

Also, this is part of an ongoing series, Drink Like a Character where we recreate drinks from books, movies, and tv shows.

Yeah, I didn’t stage the picture or anything. Whatever.

Warning: This was the 60s and they weren’t worried about raw eggs back then. While the recipe calls for cooked yolks the whites remain uncooked. If you want to cook the egg whites as well, combine the whites with the sugar and salt as it says in step #5, but do so over low heat in a saucepan. – We did that and ended up with cooked bits. You may want to strain it before serving so you don’t get ‘pulpy eggnog’ as we did.

Ingredients

6 eggs (separated)
1/2 cup of sugar (divided)
4 cups milk or cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups heavy cream (we used heavy whipping cream. Not sure if that’s different)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 – 1 cup spirits such as cognac, brandy, or rum (we used rum)
Nutmeg for topping

Instructions

In a bowl (if you have an electric mixer use that) beat the yolks with a 1/4 cup of sugar until light.
Heat milk or cream in a heavy saucepan until it boils. (We did half milk and half heavy whipping cream by accident. Don’t do that unless you want your eggnog super sweet).
Remove from heat immediately and gradually add small amounts of the milk to the egg yolks, stirring constantly so it doesn’t scramble the eggs.
Pour all of the milk/yolk mixture back into the saucepan on very low heat and stir constantly. Cook until it bubbles around the sides, coats a metal spoon, or reaches 160 degrees Fahrenheit, whatever way you want to measure. Once done, put in the refrigerator to chill while you work on the egg whites.
Place the egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer (or saucepan, as stated above if you want to cook these shits), add salt and beat until stiff peaks form. Beat in the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar.
Fold egg whites into the custard mixture (yolk mixture).
In the bowl of an electric mixer whip heavy cream and fold into the mixture.
Add vanilla and spirits and keep chilled (for at least 3 hours) until serving.
We put it in a mason jar and gave it a good shake before serving.
Dust with nutmeg if you want to be fancy.

Thoughts:

I was happy with it. I also had it with coffee which is not bad at all. If you’re out of Bailey’s on Christmas morning and you want an Irish coffee, boozy eggnog’s a good substitute.

I’ve heard varying thoughts on homemade eggnogs shelf life. Most say 3-5 days and some say months. But by most accounts, the more booze and the colder the fridge, the longer the shelf life.

If you want a really old school recipe. Page 40 of How to Mix Drinks, Or The Bon-vivant’s Companion, published in 1862 by Jerry Thomas has various nogs. Like the Baltimore Eggnog, Hot Eggnog, General Harrison’s Eggnog, and Sherry Nog.

Some history

Eggnog evolved from the Medieval English drink, posset. To make posset you divide egg whites from yolks and whip them into ale, cider, or wine. I assume you then vomit.

OK, onto the ads.