Adapted from (guess who) Alton Brown:

Ingredients

• 4 egg yolks from pasteurized in-shell eggs*
• 1/3 cup sugar, plus 1 spoonful for egg whites
• 1 pint whole milk (aka Vitamin Diesel)
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup bourbon
• 1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• 4 egg whites
• drop of vanilla

Directions

Easiest (obviously) with a stand mixer:

Separate the eggs and try to get rid of the chalaza–no one wants to drink an umbilical chord. Beat the egg yolks until they lighten. Gradually add the sugar and continue to beat until it is completely dissolved. Add the milk, cream, bourbon, vanilla and nutmeg and stir to combine. You must use freshly grated nutmeg, this is the main flavor. If you don’t have a microplane grater, get one. I have a pocket sized one just in case of emergencies. (Do yourself a favor, skip the kitchen store for the microplance, and go to a hardware or woodworking store, like so many other things in my drawer.)

Beat egg whites to soft peaks. With the mixer still running gradually add the 1 tablespoon of sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. The whipped egg whites is the real trick. It makes it “thick” without being heavy or gummy. Don’t skip this.

Whisk the egg whites into the mixture. Chill, serve, rinse and repeat–Christmas only comes once a year.

* If you can’t find pasteurized in-shell eggs, and you are making this for other people, consider pasteurizing them yourself:

Place eggs in cold water along with an accurate thermometer. Bring up to 140-150 degrees Fahrenheit and hold steady for 3-5 minutes. Don’t go over 150 F unless you’re looking to make chunky eggnog.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 at 2:12 am and is filed under blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.