Morgenthaler’s recipe looks good to me—I like the lighter eggnogs, and this one appears to be my style. I’ll look forward to trying it out. Thanks for posting it!

I’m glad you like the recipe; I sort of like that “no cooking” part, too.

On the other hand: It “seems” like cooking would provide a level of pasteurization to the mix—that’s the idea behind cooking ice cream batter, which this is, but for the heavy presence of spirits.

I speculate that you could make pretty good eggnog if you heated the liquid (before adding the alcohol) to a temperature above 165° F (74° C), the temperature you need to pasteurize a liquid, and below 180° F (82° C), the temperature at which the egg protein will begin cooking; hold the temperature there for a few minutes, then chill as rapidly as you can, and add the alcohol.

And all of that may be beside the point, given that you still have to add the uncooked, whipped whites to get that lightened texture. So much for pasteurization… Yup, I like this recipe.

Thanks for commenting!

I’ve yet to try his tequila-sherry version — time to pop open that bottle of amontillado I have on the shelf.

David Wondrich, in his cocktail history Imbibe!, quotes a fellow named Alf Doten, whose diary entry on Christmas, 1871, was, “Egg nog is deceiptful.” Shnockered, indeed.