WEBVTT - From the Vault: Goblet of Eggnog 0:00:06.160 --> 0:00:08.039 Hey, you welcome to stuff to blow your mind. My 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:09.320 name is Robert Lamb. 0:00:09.360 --> 0:00:12.080 And I am Joe McCormick, and it's Saturday time for 0:00:12.119 --> 0:00:16.840 an episode from the Vault. This one originally aired December fifteenth, 0:00:16.960 --> 0:00:20.040 twenty twenty two, and it's called a Goblet of Eggnog. 0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:22.520 It's all about that thick, thick drink. 0:00:23.400 --> 0:00:25.799 That's right. I was on the fence. I was like, 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:28.520 is it too early to rerun the eggnog episode? And 0:00:28.560 --> 0:00:30.720 then I had to remind myself, well, I've already had 0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:34.199 my first cup of eggnog for this holiday season, so 0:00:34.280 --> 0:00:36.040 obviously it is not too early. 0:00:36.360 --> 0:00:38.879 You really want to listen to this episode before you 0:00:39.159 --> 0:00:42.120 do most of your eggnog drinking for the year, not after. 0:00:42.440 --> 0:00:45.160 Right, right. Yeah. It's stuff to discuss during the preparation 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:47.559 or to take with you to the store when you 0:00:47.560 --> 0:00:49.280 purchase it. I think it's been on the shelves in 0:00:49.360 --> 0:00:51.760 the grocery store since like mid October or something. 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:53.560 I love that. 0:00:54.080 --> 0:00:56.640 I'm surprised they haven't rebranded it as a Halloween drink 0:00:56.680 --> 0:00:59.800 as well, have orange eggnog. I mean, there you go, 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:02.240 Green free ideas, here, free ideas. 0:01:02.760 --> 0:01:03.560 Vampire dog. 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:06.959 Yeah, all right, well, let's uh, let's pour it up 0:01:07.040 --> 0:01:12.640 and have a sip. Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your 0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:22.880 Mind production of iHeartRadio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow 0:01:22.920 --> 0:01:26.160 your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:30.040 It's that time of year again, and by that time, 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:33.520 I mean it is the holidays. We're knee deep, perhaps 0:01:33.560 --> 0:01:37.080 waist deep in the holidays, and there's no going back. 0:01:37.200 --> 0:01:39.280 We might as well just push forward at this point, 0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:41.880 like it's just as much just as much effort to 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:44.760 keep going as it would be to turn back. So 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:47.960 once more, we have a holiday episode for you. It's 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:51.320 actually going to be our third installment in our Holiday 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:55.280 Invention series, where we more or less give the invention 0:01:55.440 --> 0:02:01.040 treatment to various holiday decorations, traditions, and toys. This year, 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:04.200 we're going to be looking in earnest at eggnog. 0:02:04.800 --> 0:02:08.120 Is eggnog an invention? Sure, we can stretch the definition. 0:02:08.200 --> 0:02:09.040 I think that's okay. 0:02:09.200 --> 0:02:11.320 I think so. I mean, we did an invention, a 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:15.160 full blown invention episode about the Matai, which we you know, 0:02:15.200 --> 0:02:17.760 we had Jeff beach bombarry on as a guest to 0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:21.720 talk about that eggnog is not something that occurs naturally 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:25.359 in the world. It must be made at some point. 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:28.600 There had to be a first or something like a first, 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:31.079 and you know, we'll get into that and and it's 0:02:31.080 --> 0:02:32.720 one of those things that has a number of different 0:02:32.760 --> 0:02:36.840 customs and cultural details surrounding it. Now, Joe, I'm not 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:39.600 sure what your relationship with eggnog happens to be, because 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:41.760 I don't know that we've ever really spoken about this. 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:45.800 I don't think we've had eggnog together before, not that 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:50.040 I recall, but my family's general approach is originally buy 0:02:50.560 --> 0:02:53.760 a carton of almond nag each year, largely for our 0:02:53.800 --> 0:02:56.120 son because he gets super into it. And if I 0:02:56.120 --> 0:03:00.120 have a chance to visit a like an upscale cocktail 0:03:00.400 --> 0:03:02.519 or a nice restaurant, then I will jump at the 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:05.080 opportunity to order an eggnog if they have one on 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:08.840 the menu. In the past, I've made it down to 0:03:09.040 --> 0:03:12.600 New Orleans for the start of Beach Bumberry Sipping Santa 0:03:12.680 --> 0:03:16.079 festivities at Beach bumb Berry's Latitude twenty nine. They also 0:03:16.080 --> 0:03:19.560 have pop ups all over the place, and they'll generally 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:22.240 have at least one holiday tiki beverage on there that 0:03:22.760 --> 0:03:25.639 is at least eggnog esque in form. 0:03:25.960 --> 0:03:31.040 I'm picturing piles of crushed or pellet ice with kind 0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:36.560 of a frothy, creamy grime about them, and some nutmeg 0:03:36.600 --> 0:03:37.600 sprinkled over top. 0:03:38.040 --> 0:03:41.360 Oh yeah, the nutmeg, as we'll discuss, is pretty essential. 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:43.280 So I did make it down there this year, but 0:03:43.320 --> 0:03:45.840 I did make it over to a tiki bar in 0:03:46.720 --> 0:03:50.160 our area, Decatur's Sost Bar, and I enjoyed a frozen 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:53.960 take on a classic eggnog. So generally a rich drink though, 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:57.960 so once twice three times per year max. That's generally 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:01.240 enough for me. Before we came in here, though, I 0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:03.440 mentioned to my wife that I was about to record 0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:06.640 the eggnog episode, and she was kind enough to provide 0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:09.480 me with an entire glass of eggnog here for me 0:04:09.520 --> 0:04:13.600 to consume during this episode. The listeners at home, You'll 0:04:13.600 --> 0:04:15.200 have to take my word for it, Joe. I think 0:04:15.200 --> 0:04:17.839 you can see it on the video feed here. 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:21.440 Wait, is this full boozeggnog or. 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:29.600 Well you might well presume that, but I couldn't possibly comment. Yes, creamy, rich, 0:04:30.720 --> 0:04:33.320 hint of nutmeg, beautiful. 0:04:33.320 --> 0:04:36.440 I have no eggnog in the house. A cute cute 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:40.560 Joe Peshei and Home Alone saying eggnog, eggnog dressed as 0:04:40.560 --> 0:04:44.000 a cop like, eggnog is the most disgusting substance on earth. 0:04:44.400 --> 0:04:47.599 And you know what, as a child, that was pretty 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:49.320 much where my head was at. I was like, yeah, 0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:52.560 Joe Peshi in Home Alone is correct. I found the 0:04:52.600 --> 0:04:56.960 idea revolting. Not just revolting. I I think I probably 0:04:57.040 --> 0:05:01.280 found it borderline nauseating to think of a drink made 0:05:01.279 --> 0:05:04.400 out of eggs. Something changed over the years. Now I 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:05.680 find it quite delightful. 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:08.159 So it was the eggs that threw you off? 0:05:08.520 --> 0:05:10.680 Yeah, well you're gonna drink eggs. I don't know. So 0:05:10.720 --> 0:05:13.160 I think about eggs. There's something that, you know. I 0:05:13.240 --> 0:05:16.360 liked eggs scrambled like they make them at the cracker barrel. 0:05:17.400 --> 0:05:22.080 You know, I'm thinking of like a thick, yellow curd 0:05:22.320 --> 0:05:26.400 like substance, and always in savory context. I mean, I know, 0:05:26.480 --> 0:05:28.560 obviously now that eggs are used in all kinds of 0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:31.880 baking and sweet contexts, but that's not how I thought 0:05:31.880 --> 0:05:33.839 about them when I was a kid. So the idea 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:40.600 of drinking a sweet egg based beverage was absolutely vile 0:05:40.800 --> 0:05:41.480 to my brain. 0:05:41.920 --> 0:05:44.359 I can understand that. I mean, even the name is 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:47.920 a bit potentially off putting. It's very forward with the egg. 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:50.760 What you were about to drink contains eggs, and then 0:05:50.800 --> 0:05:54.160 the nog also can throw one for a curve. I 0:05:54.200 --> 0:05:56.800 do like some of the archaic spellings of eggnog that 0:05:56.839 --> 0:06:00.640 I've encountered researching this episode. Oftentimes the way we encounter 0:06:00.720 --> 0:06:03.840 it now it's egg n og, but some of these 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:07.599 other spellings will be egg n ogg. I like the 0:06:07.640 --> 0:06:11.160 double the double g's occurring in both parts of the work. 0:06:11.720 --> 0:06:13.400 That's just symmetry, that's good branding. 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:17.320 Yes, now, before we proceed, I guess we should go 0:06:17.360 --> 0:06:21.279 ahead and drive home exactly what eggnog is. We've alluded 0:06:21.279 --> 0:06:24.120 to it a little bit already, but technically it's a 0:06:24.200 --> 0:06:27.920 milk egg drink or a milk egg punch. And we've 0:06:27.960 --> 0:06:31.840 of course reached the point as a civilization where you 0:06:32.560 --> 0:06:36.360 can have something that is identifiable as a nog without 0:06:36.400 --> 0:06:39.360 the presence of egg or dairy. But historically this is 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:41.640 the realm from which this beverage arises. 0:06:42.320 --> 0:06:45.520 Right. So you you mentioned almond nog. I guess that 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:47.840 is equivalent in the same way that you might have 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:50.360 almond milk. It is a substitute for milk. 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:53.159 Yeah, though I guess it's even more like some people 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:55.520 get up in arms, especially the dairy industry. I know 0:06:55.560 --> 0:06:58.839 about things that are not milk calling themselves milk, and 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:01.560 even more of the when I guess something like a 0:07:01.600 --> 0:07:04.000 soy nog or an almond nog is going to have 0:07:04.360 --> 0:07:07.320 neither eggs nor dairy, and so it is even further removed. 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:10.120 But yet it's still very much in the spirit of 0:07:10.880 --> 0:07:14.000 the classic nog, so I think it more than qualifies. 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:18.120 Yeah, nog is a thick, creamy, sweet drink. 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:24.960 Yes, it's a state of mind. It's a holiday tradition. Now, 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:26.240 one of the sources I'm going to refer back to 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:29.920 several times in this episode is the excellent book Imbibe 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:34.360 exclamation Point by David Wandriche, which is a text that 0:07:34.400 --> 0:07:36.480 we've referenced in the show in the past. It is 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:39.640 one of, if not the best books you can pick 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:42.520 up on the history of the American cocktail. This is 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:45.000 a great book. It's cites, among many others, the legendary 0:07:45.000 --> 0:07:48.640 professor Jerry Thomas who lived eighteen thirty through eighteen eighty five, 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:53.200 the New Orleans bartender who wrote the seminal Bartender's Guide 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:58.000 and helped popularize cocktail drinking in general. We're go into 0:07:58.040 --> 0:08:00.680 more depth on this in an older episode episodes that 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:02.720 we did together on Mixology. 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:05.400 I think we ended up talking about absinthe a lot 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:05.800 in those. 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:11.600 Yeah, that would make sense, and I know Jerry Thomas 0:08:11.640 --> 0:08:14.960 also comes up in the recent episode on ice the 0:08:15.000 --> 0:08:18.840 interview that I did. But according to Wondrich, basic milk 0:08:18.880 --> 0:08:22.360 punches go back to the late sixteen hundreds and to 0:08:22.360 --> 0:08:24.840 give you an example of what a milk punch consists of, 0:08:24.880 --> 0:08:26.680 and again this is not an egg milk punch. This 0:08:26.720 --> 0:08:30.000 is just a milk punch. Wondridge includes a recipe from 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:34.040 Jerry Thomas. Jerry Thomas would have you know, brought up 0:08:34.080 --> 0:08:36.199 together a bunch of these different recipes for drinks and 0:08:36.800 --> 0:08:39.640 put them in his own book at the time. This 0:08:39.679 --> 0:08:43.600 particular recipe from Jerry Thomas calls for sugar water, brandy 0:08:43.720 --> 0:08:47.000 rum and shaved ice. A little nutmeg goes on top, 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:51.400 and wondridch includes a quote from This is an eighteen 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:55.120 seventy three quote from the Brooklyn Eagle that states that 0:08:55.200 --> 0:08:57.640 this punch was quote the surest thing in the world 0:08:57.760 --> 0:09:00.600 to get drunk on and so fearfully drunk that you 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:03.760 won't know whether you are a cow yourself or some 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:05.000 other foolish thing. 0:09:05.520 --> 0:09:12.200 Hmmm, that's that's good. No. One thing I have to 0:09:12.240 --> 0:09:14.640 point out is that when you listed the ingredients, you 0:09:14.679 --> 0:09:17.000 did not list milk. So I assume these are the 0:09:17.040 --> 0:09:18.720 things that are added to the milk. 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:21.840 Yes, yes, okay, yeah. The milk would would also be 0:09:21.840 --> 0:09:26.000 be an important part of this. It's so already we're 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:29.000 kind of in the territory of what we think of 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:31.040 when we think about eggnog. But of course there are 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:35.160 no eggs there now when it comes to eggnog itself. 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:38.599 Thomas was very much of the opinion that eggnog was 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:43.040 quote a beverage of American origin, and Wondrich states that 0:09:43.120 --> 0:09:45.840 quote the drink's earliest mentions come from a seventeen eighty 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:49.520 eight Philadelphia newspaper, and all the other mentions are American 0:09:50.120 --> 0:09:52.880 and if early European travelers to the United States viewed 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:55.520 it as one of the novelties Americans were inflicting on 0:09:55.559 --> 0:09:58.240 the art of drinking. By the eighteen sixties, it was 0:09:58.280 --> 0:10:01.320 a drink of comfortable middle age with a wide, if 0:10:01.400 --> 0:10:05.199 strictly seasonal popularity. When Thomas added that in the North 0:10:05.440 --> 0:10:07.920 quote it is a favorite of all seasons, he was 0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:09.600 certainly overstating the case. 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:12.880 So you bring up that mention in the seventeen eighty 0:10:12.880 --> 0:10:18.599 eight newspaper, and this name drop of eggnog as a 0:10:18.679 --> 0:10:22.160 recipe is also referenced in a great source I found 0:10:22.160 --> 0:10:25.720 that was aimed at unearthing the etymological history of eggnog, 0:10:25.800 --> 0:10:28.840 because it's obvious why the word egg is in the name. 0:10:28.960 --> 0:10:32.880 There are eggs in it, But what exactly is anog? Could, 0:10:33.000 --> 0:10:36.400 as the Simpsons proposed, you equally whip up a cauldron 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:37.480 of corn nog. 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:40.880 Corn dog sounds kind of delicious, like it brings to 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:42.319 mind like corn puddings. 0:10:42.920 --> 0:10:46.800 I think it occurs in the Simpsons episode with the hurricane, 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:49.680 when the stores are there's a run on the Quickie 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:51.679 Mart and the only things left on the shelves are 0:10:51.720 --> 0:10:57.240 corn nog and wadded beef. But anyway, diving into the 0:10:57.360 --> 0:11:02.080 history and etymology of eggnog, corn nog, whatever, what have you? 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:05.840 Any nogs? My source here is a December two thousand 0:11:05.880 --> 0:11:10.280 and nine article called the Origins of Eggnog Holiday Grog 0:11:10.880 --> 0:11:14.400 by the American Linguist and Language columnist Ben Zimmer, who 0:11:14.480 --> 0:11:17.560 is brother of the excellent science writer Karl Zimmer, who's 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:20.079 been a guest on the show before Huh Crazy. So 0:11:20.559 --> 0:11:23.600 here's what Ben Zimmer says about nog. The word nog 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:28.720 first shows up as a regional term in England, specifically 0:11:28.760 --> 0:11:31.880 in the region of East Anglia, so it's the eastern 0:11:32.000 --> 0:11:37.520 part of the country containing Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, and 0:11:37.800 --> 0:11:40.360 it referred that term. They are referred to a type 0:11:40.360 --> 0:11:43.600 of beer. We know this because of a letter written 0:11:43.720 --> 0:11:47.880 from the County of Norfolk in the year sixteen ninety 0:11:47.920 --> 0:11:52.520 three by a man named Humphrey Priudeaux, who described quote 0:11:52.559 --> 0:11:56.040 a bottle of old strong beer, which in this country 0:11:56.080 --> 0:12:00.360 they call nog. So nog is high gravity beer, it's 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:03.960 strong stuff. But to take one step back, why would 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:09.280 the East Anglians call strong beer noog? Zimmer identifies a 0:12:09.320 --> 0:12:12.840 couple of hypotheses here. One is that it comes from 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:17.160 the word noggin, which we today think of as antiquated 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:21.760 slang for head for your head. But before that nogin 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:25.520 meant a small mug or a small drink of spirits. 0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:30.360 So perhaps noggin was shorter was shortened to nog, and 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:32.920 it came to refer to the beer inside the mug 0:12:33.000 --> 0:12:35.520 instead of the mug itself. And we do that kind 0:12:35.520 --> 0:12:39.839 of metonymy with words today like did you have wine? Oh, 0:12:39.880 --> 0:12:42.600 I drank two glasses. You're not saying you literally drank 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:46.240 the glass. The glasses mean the wine inside the glass, right. 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:50.560 But another idea is that the word noog for strong 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:55.280 beer comes from a Scottish word nug or nugged ale, 0:12:55.679 --> 0:12:58.400 which means ale that you heat up by sticking a 0:12:58.440 --> 0:13:02.240 hot poker in it, which is funny enough to imagine 0:13:02.280 --> 0:13:04.240 in itself, but I can also see how that would 0:13:04.240 --> 0:13:09.000 correspond to a drink with strong alcohol alcohol content, because 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:11.800 drinks with higher alcohol content are often said to taste 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:13.480 warm or even to burn. 0:13:14.280 --> 0:13:17.400 Hmmm, yeah, this is this is interesting. It brings to mind, 0:13:17.440 --> 0:13:19.520 you know, the images of some of these older drinks 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:22.960 where you'd you would you would stick the hot poker 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:25.280 or some sort of hot metal into it. I think 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:28.800 there's a scene in the excellent TV series The Nick 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:32.040 where you see some of the characters getting a drink 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:32.760 of this fashion. 0:13:33.200 --> 0:13:37.480 M Okay, so so far we've got the idea that 0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:39.880 you start with either a little mug called a noggin 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:42.280 or a type of beer warmed with a hot poker 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:44.920 called a nug And somehow one of these terms gets 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:48.400 poured it over into this East Anglian word nog, which 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:52.040 means strong beer. But how does that actually get connected 0:13:52.080 --> 0:13:55.439 to the sweet, milky, eggy drink we are familiar with. 0:13:56.160 --> 0:13:58.439 We don't know for sure, but the link in the 0:13:58.559 --> 0:14:02.200 chain seems to be alcohol, because while you can buy 0:14:02.360 --> 0:14:05.600 kid friendly nog in the dairy isle these days, everything 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:09.160 I've been reading suggests that early eggnog was boozy. That 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:12.440 was a primary characteristic of what the noog was. It 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:13.960 had a lot of alcohol in it. 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:17.880 Yeah, absolutely, That's exactly what I saw in all of 0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:21.720 my research. Nobody's talking about eggnog is something that is 0:14:21.880 --> 0:14:24.040 then spiked. It is inherently spiked. 0:14:24.600 --> 0:14:30.320 And Zimmer reports that a Maryland clergyman named Jonathan Bouche 0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:34.040 is alleged to have written the first known reference to 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:38.160 eggnog and a poem in seventeen seventy five, but this 0:14:38.240 --> 0:14:41.120 poem was not published until about thirty years later, so 0:14:41.160 --> 0:14:43.480 we don't know when it was actually written for sure. 0:14:44.320 --> 0:14:46.720 But the relevant section of the poem goes like this, 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:51.560 fog DRAMs in the morn or better still eggnog. This 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:54.960 is nog with two g's at night hot suppings and 0:14:55.000 --> 0:14:59.360 at mid day grog my palette can regale. So you 0:14:59.400 --> 0:15:03.080 see the The context here is fully alcoholic grog refers 0:15:03.160 --> 0:15:07.360 to a spirit or alcoholic beverage. Then there's that line 0:15:07.520 --> 0:15:11.320 fog DRAMs in the morn or better still eggnog. A 0:15:11.840 --> 0:15:15.280 dram usually refers to a small drink of whiskey, and 0:15:15.360 --> 0:15:20.359 according to Miriam Webster, fog DRAMs are quote DRAMs resorted 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:23.720 to on the pretense of their protecting from the danger 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:30.040 of fog. I'm sorry, boss, I had to have another 0:15:30.040 --> 0:15:32.600 whiskey before work, or the fog could have killed me 0:15:32.720 --> 0:15:33.360 on the way here. 0:15:33.920 --> 0:15:37.120 All right, well, yeah, this is making sense. An early 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:40.760 morning drink though, because you get your fog protection, you 0:15:40.800 --> 0:15:42.960 get a couple of eggs in there. Maybe you know 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:47.120 this is a breakfast that you're drinking down exactly. 0:15:48.160 --> 0:15:52.360 So Bouchet may have written that in seventy seventy five. 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:54.640 It's hard to say for sure, but according to Zimmer, 0:15:54.680 --> 0:15:59.080 the earliest rock solid references to eggnog where we know 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:01.680 the date of their public appear in a handful of 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:05.880 newspapers in the year seventeen eighty eight, as you mentioned earlier. Now, 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:09.000 one is a March seventeen eighty eight report in the 0:16:09.040 --> 0:16:12.640 New Jersey Journal, which and I love that this is 0:16:12.680 --> 0:16:16.680 what some newspaper articles consisted of at the time. It says, 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:20.480 a young man with a cormorant appetite meaning like gluttonous. 0:16:21.440 --> 0:16:25.640 A young man with a cormorant appetite voraciously devoured last 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:30.280 week at Connecticut farms thirty raw eggs, a glass of eggnog, 0:16:30.440 --> 0:16:32.200 and another of brandy sling. 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:35.080 Yeah, is this what newspapers were back in the day? 0:16:35.360 --> 0:16:37.320 Did you have like a gluttony page for You're like, 0:16:37.360 --> 0:16:39.560 what's everybody overeating in New Jersey? 0:16:40.000 --> 0:16:43.080 Stop the presses. We've got to get this story, this 0:16:43.200 --> 0:16:47.240 hot story about the guy who ate thirty eggs in there. Okay, 0:16:47.320 --> 0:16:49.960 so whatever eggnog is at the time, he had some 0:16:51.000 --> 0:16:54.520 Another article is from October seventeen eighty eight in the 0:16:54.720 --> 0:16:59.240 Independent Gazetteer of Philadelphia, where a writer was complaining about 0:16:59.240 --> 0:17:02.880 an upset stomach and wrote, quote, when wine and beer, 0:17:03.080 --> 0:17:06.800 punch and eggnog meat instantly ensues. 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:09.480 A quarrel, that there's wisdom to that, I think. 0:17:09.840 --> 0:17:12.960 Yeah, I've only ever heard the liquor before beer kind 0:17:13.000 --> 0:17:14.920 of thing. I've never heard it taken out to four 0:17:14.920 --> 0:17:17.480 different things with like punch and eggnog in there. 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:21.399 You know, we were looking back at a time when 0:17:21.480 --> 0:17:24.760 drinking was a little more robust throughout the country. 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:29.040 I think, yeah. So anyway, yeah, I love the fact 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:31.639 that newspapers not only used to report on what some 0:17:31.800 --> 0:17:34.159 guy aided a form, but also what gave me an 0:17:34.240 --> 0:17:40.560 upset tummy. So it sounds like an alcoholic beverage known 0:17:40.600 --> 0:17:44.080 as eggnog was in common parlance in the colonies and 0:17:44.160 --> 0:17:48.480 the young United States in the late eighteenth century. But 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:52.040 Zimmer also documents how an early example of eggnog was 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:55.760 associated with Christmas celebration by citing a piece in the 0:17:55.880 --> 0:18:01.040 Virginia Chronicle from January seventeen ninety three, which reads as follows. 0:18:01.800 --> 0:18:06.840 On last Christmas Eve, several gentlemen met at Northampton Courthouse 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:11.080 and spent the evening in mirth and festivity when eggnog 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:14.720 was the principal liquor used by the company. After they 0:18:14.760 --> 0:18:18.159 had indulged pretty freely in this beverage, a gentleman in 0:18:18.200 --> 0:18:20.359 the company offered a bet that not one of the 0:18:20.400 --> 0:18:24.600 party could write four verses extempore, which should be rhyme 0:18:24.880 --> 0:18:28.000 and sense. Okay, he's like, we're so drunk, I bet 0:18:28.080 --> 0:18:31.760 none of you can write four lines of poetry that 0:18:31.800 --> 0:18:34.480 will make sense and rhyme. So what do they come 0:18:34.560 --> 0:18:38.399 up with? While one guy belts out the following, 'tis 0:18:38.600 --> 0:18:43.560 eggnog now, whose golden streams dispense far richer treasures to 0:18:43.640 --> 0:18:48.520 the ravished sense. The muse from wine derives a transient glare, 0:18:48.880 --> 0:18:55.399 but Eggnog's drafts afford her solid fare. So move over, wine. 0:18:55.520 --> 0:18:58.359 The muses are no longer interested in you now they 0:18:58.359 --> 0:19:02.000 will only be singing to people who are chug and agnog. 0:19:02.520 --> 0:19:05.960 Eggnog doesn't seem to have a personification though, Like, there's 0:19:06.000 --> 0:19:07.880 no like Satyr of Egnog. 0:19:08.040 --> 0:19:09.800 Right, the Dionysus of Eggnog. 0:19:10.200 --> 0:19:13.920 Yeah, I suppose it's. You know, he was before its time. 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:16.160 I think he would he would have approved of Egnog, 0:19:16.280 --> 0:19:19.400 especially based on these historical references to agno. 0:19:19.960 --> 0:19:22.640 So do we know exactly what they were putting in 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:26.040 eggnog at the time. Well, there's a book from seventeen 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:30.359 ninety nine called Travels through the States of North America 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:32.720 and the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada during the 0:19:32.800 --> 0:19:35.760 years seventeen ninety five, ninety six and ninety seven by 0:19:35.800 --> 0:19:40.520 an Irish writer and explorer named Isaac Weld. And this 0:19:40.880 --> 0:19:43.560 passage actually reminds me of earlier when you were citing 0:19:43.600 --> 0:19:47.240 I think David Wondrich who said that sometimes people from 0:19:47.280 --> 0:19:51.320 Europe might encounter egnog and think, oh what what you know, 0:19:51.720 --> 0:19:54.800 what crimes they're committing against a drinking culture here in 0:19:55.480 --> 0:19:59.000 the Americas. And I wonder if there's a little bit 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:01.560 of that kind of raised eyebrow going on in this passage. 0:20:01.600 --> 0:20:04.320 But we'll see what you think. So Weld is writing 0:20:04.320 --> 0:20:07.600 about a stop at an inn near Baltimore, Maryland, where 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:11.320 he writes, quote, several travelers had stopped at the same 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:13.359 house that I did the first night I was on 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:16.760 the road, and we all breakfasted together preparatory to setting 0:20:16.760 --> 0:20:20.800 out the next morning. The American travelers, before they pursued 0:20:20.840 --> 0:20:24.480 their journey, took a hearty draft each. According to custom 0:20:24.680 --> 0:20:29.720 of eggnog, a mixture composed of new milk, eggs, rum, 0:20:30.000 --> 0:20:35.560 and sugar beat up together, so eggnog it should be heavy, sweet, 0:20:35.760 --> 0:20:39.320 exploding with alcohol. Drunk in large quantities in the morning 0:20:39.400 --> 0:20:41.160 before setting out on a long journey. 0:20:43.160 --> 0:20:45.560 Yeah, this is I mean it really it forces you 0:20:45.600 --> 0:20:48.200 to rethink eggnog because I think a lot of people 0:20:48.200 --> 0:20:51.919 are probably like like me, you grew up exposed to 0:20:52.080 --> 0:20:55.000 again the grocery store egnog, and there's this kind of 0:20:55.040 --> 0:20:57.840 sense that eggnog is this drink for everybody. Eggnog's this 0:20:57.920 --> 0:21:01.720 drink for kids. And as you get older, then you're 0:21:01.760 --> 0:21:04.920 perhaps in a situation where you can have the eggnog 0:21:04.960 --> 0:21:08.920 with something added to it, eggnog plus you know, if 0:21:08.920 --> 0:21:14.320 you like. But this that the historical truth of eggnog 0:21:14.440 --> 0:21:17.120 is no, this is the thing that the really drunken 0:21:17.160 --> 0:21:20.119 adults are having sometimes first thing in the morning. 0:21:20.800 --> 0:21:25.080 Also regarding famous eggnog recipes from the early days of 0:21:26.280 --> 0:21:30.600 the United States, there is a famous recipe for eggnog 0:21:30.680 --> 0:21:35.080 that is alleged to come from George Washington's kitchen papers. 0:21:35.119 --> 0:21:38.320 You'll find this if you google George Washington's Eggnog. I've 0:21:38.359 --> 0:21:41.600 seen some serious doubt cast upon its origins, like whether 0:21:41.640 --> 0:21:46.040 it was actually Washington's. But according to the Farmer's Almanac, 0:21:46.119 --> 0:21:49.600 this famous recipe goes as follows. It's one quart cream, 0:21:49.960 --> 0:21:54.600 one quart milk, one dozen tablespoons sugar, one pint brandy, 0:21:54.960 --> 0:21:58.119 half a pint rye whiskey, half a pint Jamaica rum, 0:21:58.359 --> 0:22:01.840 and a quarter pint sherry. And then you mix the liquor, 0:22:02.840 --> 0:22:05.640 separate the yolks in the whites of twelve eggs, add 0:22:05.680 --> 0:22:09.240 sugar to the beaten yolks. Mix well. Then you add 0:22:09.280 --> 0:22:12.520 milk and cream, slowly beating. Beat the whites of the 0:22:12.520 --> 0:22:16.440 eggs until stiff peaks form, then fold slowly into the mixture. 0:22:16.720 --> 0:22:18.480 Then you let it sit in a cool place for 0:22:18.560 --> 0:22:24.680 several days. Then quote taste frequently. And I could be wrong, 0:22:24.720 --> 0:22:27.480 but I believe this is the recipe that our colleague, 0:22:27.760 --> 0:22:31.200 our colleague Alex Williams uses when he makes his famous 0:22:31.520 --> 0:22:34.320 eggnog for all of our coworkers. 0:22:34.720 --> 0:22:37.840 Yes, it definitely is. This is definitely the recipe he 0:22:37.880 --> 0:22:40.840 would use, and it is quite delightful. But yeah, I 0:22:40.920 --> 0:22:44.680 encountered the same thing. Looking at the actual history of this, 0:22:44.760 --> 0:22:49.840 there's some doubt as to whether George Washington actually serve this, 0:22:51.200 --> 0:22:52.879 And then there are some accounts that say, well, it 0:22:52.880 --> 0:22:56.639 looks like maybe there's evidence that eggnog was served at 0:22:56.680 --> 0:23:00.760 Mount Vernon but as far as the precise recipe, I 0:23:00.840 --> 0:23:02.600 don't know that there's a lot of data to back 0:23:02.640 --> 0:23:06.280