5 ms·

Makes it safer if it's uncooked, but most eggnog is cooked (like crème anglaise or ice cream base).

nkozyra 5y ago
Most (non-alcoholic) eggnog is pasteurized, I'd say it's a rarity to have 'cooked' eggs. When I make it, it's generally still really alcohol-laden in the mouth until ~ 3 weeks. The longest I've ever kept it is 6-8 weeks but I've heard good things about a year or longer
- dsizzle 5y ago
  The difference between "cooking" and "pasteurizing" is only a few degrees: I've seen 138F for pasteurization while 142F starts to cook. I've never heard of eggnog with literally cooked eggs (chunks of egg and yolk? Yikes.). I would guess they meant "cook" in the loose sense of heat to kill bacteria (rather than cross-linking the proteins to create a solid)!
  - Mikeb85 5y ago
    There's literally an entire class of pastry creams involving egg yolks cooked into cream. With the proper technique it stays homogeneous. - Egg nog - Crème anglaise (and offshoots like Bavarian cream) - Crème pâtissière/pastry cream (plus offshoots like millefeuille cream) - Lemon curd - Ice cream base Anglaise, pastry cream and lemon curd also form the base for the majority of thickened cream preparations that end up in layered cakes and other pastries.
    - dsizzle 5y ago
      Ah, so you stir it while heating or dilute it enough or something and that prevents coagulation?
      - Mikeb85 5y ago
        You also cook it to a temperature that causes it to pasteurize, thicken but not scramble. Or add starch which prevents it from scrambling for the ones cooked to a higher temperature. You stir while cooking very slowly until it reaches a specific temperature.
        dsizzle 5y ago
        Oh, so my guess about stirring was wrong -- that doesn't matter (was thinking it would be like stirring ice cream while freezing)? How sensitive is the homogeneity to starch concentration when heating above 142F? Are there any other parameters in the technique besides temperature and starch concentration?
        Mikeb85 5y ago
        No your guess about stirring was right I just added more info and specified (coagulation does happen but different protein molecules cook at different temperatures). It's very sensitive to starch in the sense a relatively small amount of starch will prevent scrambling. Temperature and starch are the main considerations WRT not scrambling the eggs. Anglaise/ice cream/pastry cream/curd all have varying amounts of fat (milk vs cream or mix), sugar and it'll all affect the consistency.
  - chomp 5y ago
    I sous vide mine at around those temps which is below the coagulation temperature, and makes it perfectly safe with no chunks of cooked egg.
    - dsizzle 5y ago
      I think you need to clarify "around those temps." From what I understand, if you stay below 142F, it won't coagulate. Are you just saying that sous vide is precise enough that you can do your own pasteurization? Or are you suggesting 142F isn't quite a hard cutoff? Either way, that's good to know.
      - ortusdux 5y ago
        A standard $100 usd Sous Vide wand can easily hold ±1°f if you use it in a small insulated cooler. I regularly use mine to pasteurize and soft-boil eggs - I like to give eggnog as gifts and I hate a solid yolk. I've never actually tested the pasteurized eggs for salmonella afterwards. I wonder what test-strips cost?
  - HillRat 5y ago
    Commercial eggnog definitely uses pasteurized and sugared egg yolks (generally in small quantities); they come as a homogenized liquid. For home cooks who don't have access to pasteurized (or to pasteurize) eggs, or don't want to have alcohol in their drinks for the raw "real" stuff, you can always make a cooked custard base, strain it to remove any coagulated bits, and then thin it with additional dairy before serving.
- Arainach 5y ago
  My testing lines up with Kenji's: https://www.seriouseats.com/is-aging-holiday-eggnog-worth-it https://www.seriouseats.com/is-aging-holiday-eggnog-worth-it 1 month is worth it, 3 months is great, after that I don't necessarily find it's worth it. That said, I have one last pint jar of November 2019 sitting in the fridge that I need to open soon and test....
- coldpie 5y ago
  I made a batch that I let sit for a year. After the year I would describe it as disgusting, bordering on inedible. I still don't know whether I screwed up or just don't have a taste for it, but I haven't tried it twice. Edit: Reading the sibling's Kenji link, which references TFA, I definitely agree with these sentences: > Julia Thiel of the Chicago Reader claimed that year-old nog had "more depth and complexity of flavor," but that "the booziness made it a little difficult to drink." > Thiel's assessment is most in agreement with my own. The nog was definitely more complex—new flavors had developed that are not present in fresh nog—but the booziness came strongly to the forefront.
  - js2 5y ago
    Just to try to calibrate to your taste: do you drink any spirits neat? If so, at what proof? e.g, I'll drink bourbon neat as high as 120 proof, but that's definitely been an acquired taste.
    - GravitasFailure 5y ago
      I'll drink 120 proof whisky neat and enjoy it all day, but there's something about Eggnog and every other creamy/fatty cocktail that brings forward a harsh, rubbing alcohol-like sting that I can't stand. I'd love to know how exactly that works but haven't found any answers yet. The one I'm really trying to figure out is an experiment with soaking apple pieces in bourbon for apple pies. The result is a lovely slightly tart apple whisky that has a boozy harshness that's tamed by a bit of honey.
harpersealtako 5y ago
I've always been under the strong impression that raw-egg-eggnog is overwhelmingly the default, and the only eggnog that is cooked/pasteurized is the store-bought stuff. After all, what's the point of making your own eggnog otherwise?
- cout 5y ago
  I've never made eggnog, but lately I'm starting to learn to make other things with eggs, such as mayonnaise and lemon curd. You can buy pasteurized eggs at the grocery store, and some people claim you can pasteurize eggs at home (though the USDA says otherwise). In that case the eggs and milk would be pasteurized, but the eggnog itself would be uncooked.
  - dekhn 5y ago
    BTW, the "cooked" version of mayonnaise is called 'sabayon' or zabaglione and is often used in desserts.
  - crookshanked 5y ago
    Interesting to consider that bit about the USDA and home pasteurizing eggs. I do a lot of ice cream/frozen custard style things and have used raw yolks before after using low temperature cooking via immersion circulator to "pasteurize" them first. I usually refer to Douglas Baldwin for a majority of this stuff. http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html Though the first article that popped up on the search has some good reading on it from what I'm seeing. https://www.streetsmartkitchen.com/how-to-pasteurize-eggs-sous-vide/ https://www.streetsmartkitchen.com/how-to-pasteurize-eggs-so...
  - smegsicle 5y ago
    > mayonnaise how do you blend it? a lot of recipes call for an immersion blender..
    - simtel20 5y ago
      Not the person you asked, but you can make mayo with a bender or a whisk. Emulsions like mayo or (no-egg) aioli are tricky until you learn to see how they behave, and after that are pretty easy.

Most (non-alcoholic) eggnog is pasteurized, I'd say it's a rarity to have 'cooked' eggs. When I make it, it's generally still really alcohol-laden in the mouth until ~ 3 weeks. The longest I've ever kept it is 6-8 weeks but I've heard good things about a year or longer

dsizzle 5y ago
The difference between "cooking" and "pasteurizing" is only a few degrees: I've seen 138F for pasteurization while 142F starts to cook. I've never heard of eggnog with literally cooked eggs (chunks of egg and yolk? Yikes.). I would guess they meant "cook" in the loose sense of heat to kill bacteria (rather than cross-linking the proteins to create a solid)!
- Mikeb85 5y ago
  There's literally an entire class of pastry creams involving egg yolks cooked into cream. With the proper technique it stays homogeneous. - Egg nog - Crème anglaise (and offshoots like Bavarian cream) - Crème pâtissière/pastry cream (plus offshoots like millefeuille cream) - Lemon curd - Ice cream base Anglaise, pastry cream and lemon curd also form the base for the majority of thickened cream preparations that end up in layered cakes and other pastries.
  - dsizzle 5y ago
    Ah, so you stir it while heating or dilute it enough or something and that prevents coagulation?
    - Mikeb85 5y ago
      You also cook it to a temperature that causes it to pasteurize, thicken but not scramble. Or add starch which prevents it from scrambling for the ones cooked to a higher temperature. You stir while cooking very slowly until it reaches a specific temperature.
      - dsizzle 5y ago
        Oh, so my guess about stirring was wrong -- that doesn't matter (was thinking it would be like stirring ice cream while freezing)? How sensitive is the homogeneity to starch concentration when heating above 142F? Are there any other parameters in the technique besides temperature and starch concentration?
        Mikeb85 5y ago
        No your guess about stirring was right I just added more info and specified (coagulation does happen but different protein molecules cook at different temperatures). It's very sensitive to starch in the sense a relatively small amount of starch will prevent scrambling. Temperature and starch are the main considerations WRT not scrambling the eggs. Anglaise/ice cream/pastry cream/curd all have varying amounts of fat (milk vs cream or mix), sugar and it'll all affect the consistency.
- chomp 5y ago
  I sous vide mine at around those temps which is below the coagulation temperature, and makes it perfectly safe with no chunks of cooked egg.
  - dsizzle 5y ago
    I think you need to clarify "around those temps." From what I understand, if you stay below 142F, it won't coagulate. Are you just saying that sous vide is precise enough that you can do your own pasteurization? Or are you suggesting 142F isn't quite a hard cutoff? Either way, that's good to know.
    - ortusdux 5y ago
      A standard $100 usd Sous Vide wand can easily hold ±1°f if you use it in a small insulated cooler. I regularly use mine to pasteurize and soft-boil eggs - I like to give eggnog as gifts and I hate a solid yolk. I've never actually tested the pasteurized eggs for salmonella afterwards. I wonder what test-strips cost?
- HillRat 5y ago
  Commercial eggnog definitely uses pasteurized and sugared egg yolks (generally in small quantities); they come as a homogenized liquid. For home cooks who don't have access to pasteurized (or to pasteurize) eggs, or don't want to have alcohol in their drinks for the raw "real" stuff, you can always make a cooked custard base, strain it to remove any coagulated bits, and then thin it with additional dairy before serving.
Arainach 5y ago
My testing lines up with Kenji's: https://www.seriouseats.com/is-aging-holiday-eggnog-worth-it https://www.seriouseats.com/is-aging-holiday-eggnog-worth-it 1 month is worth it, 3 months is great, after that I don't necessarily find it's worth it. That said, I have one last pint jar of November 2019 sitting in the fridge that I need to open soon and test....
coldpie 5y ago
I made a batch that I let sit for a year. After the year I would describe it as disgusting, bordering on inedible. I still don't know whether I screwed up or just don't have a taste for it, but I haven't tried it twice. Edit: Reading the sibling's Kenji link, which references TFA, I definitely agree with these sentences: > Julia Thiel of the Chicago Reader claimed that year-old nog had "more depth and complexity of flavor," but that "the booziness made it a little difficult to drink." > Thiel's assessment is most in agreement with my own. The nog was definitely more complex—new flavors had developed that are not present in fresh nog—but the booziness came strongly to the forefront.
- js2 5y ago
  Just to try to calibrate to your taste: do you drink any spirits neat? If so, at what proof? e.g, I'll drink bourbon neat as high as 120 proof, but that's definitely been an acquired taste.
  - GravitasFailure 5y ago
    I'll drink 120 proof whisky neat and enjoy it all day, but there's something about Eggnog and every other creamy/fatty cocktail that brings forward a harsh, rubbing alcohol-like sting that I can't stand. I'd love to know how exactly that works but haven't found any answers yet. The one I'm really trying to figure out is an experiment with soaking apple pieces in bourbon for apple pies. The result is a lovely slightly tart apple whisky that has a boozy harshness that's tamed by a bit of honey.

harpersealtako 5y ago

I've always been under the strong impression that raw-egg-eggnog is overwhelmingly the default, and the only eggnog that is cooked/pasteurized is the store-bought stuff. After all, what's the point of making your own eggnog otherwise?

cout 5y ago
I've never made eggnog, but lately I'm starting to learn to make other things with eggs, such as mayonnaise and lemon curd. You can buy pasteurized eggs at the grocery store, and some people claim you can pasteurize eggs at home (though the USDA says otherwise). In that case the eggs and milk would be pasteurized, but the eggnog itself would be uncooked.
- dekhn 5y ago
  BTW, the "cooked" version of mayonnaise is called 'sabayon' or zabaglione and is often used in desserts.
- crookshanked 5y ago
  Interesting to consider that bit about the USDA and home pasteurizing eggs. I do a lot of ice cream/frozen custard style things and have used raw yolks before after using low temperature cooking via immersion circulator to "pasteurize" them first. I usually refer to Douglas Baldwin for a majority of this stuff. http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html Though the first article that popped up on the search has some good reading on it from what I'm seeing. https://www.streetsmartkitchen.com/how-to-pasteurize-eggs-sous-vide/ https://www.streetsmartkitchen.com/how-to-pasteurize-eggs-so...
- smegsicle 5y ago
  > mayonnaise how do you blend it? a lot of recipes call for an immersion blender..
  - simtel20 5y ago
    Not the person you asked, but you can make mayo with a bender or a whisk. Emulsions like mayo or (no-egg) aioli are tricky until you learn to see how they behave, and after that are pretty easy.