Not only was George Washington our first president, but he also passed down a variety of recipes that are part of his impressive legacy. He had an interesting recipe for beer, but my favorite was his most ‘powerful’ egg nog! It seemed to be a lot of nog and little else. His original recipe is incomplete — as seems to be the habit from the time — leaving out the most simple of ingredients : spices and eggs. In addition, not many recipes from that period discussed the HOWS of making this or that and left that for you. They either thought the process was obvious or thought too much conversation would let too many secrets loose! Sounds all too much like my grandmother.
Here’s what was written:
1/2 cup sherry
1 cup rum (from Jamaica in those days)
1 cup rye whiskey*
2 cups brandy
3/4 cup sugar
4 cups whole milk
4 cups cream (heavy whipping cream**)
* American whiskey’s popularity resulted from the British preventing rum from reaching their ungrateful colonies during the American Revolution. viva la revolution!
** today’s ‘cream’ is a very poor substitute for what was called ‘cream’ of even fifty years ago, so use heavy whipping cream.
Stay tuned and I will post a step-by-step recipe with pictures!
By the way, some positive trends around the corner: the ‘super sized’ portions of restaurants are getting scaled back, you and I are more important to others than a professional food critic and greater effort and variety is being placed into special meals and the return of everyday comfort foods!
Roger Freberg