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Homemade Eggnog

A cooked custard base, chilled overnight, thick enough to coat a spoon. Nothing like the carton.

Prep
15 min
Cook
15 min
Rest
8 hr
Makes
Makes 5 cups (1.2 liters), serves 8
Jump to the recipe
A glass of eggnog under a heavy dusting of cinnamon
Photo: Fernando Capetillo / Pexels

Raw-egg eggnog exists and is traditional, but a cooked custard base is safer, thicker and better, and the only cost is fifteen minutes at the stovetop.

The number that matters is 76°C. Below about 70°C the egg proteins have not set and the custard stays thin; above 80°C they seize into lumps and you have sweet scrambled egg. The window is narrower than it sounds and a thermometer removes all the guesswork. Without one, the test is the back of a wooden spoon: dip it, draw a line through the coating with a finger, and if the line holds its edges instead of running together, it is done.

Stir constantly and in a figure of eight, reaching the corners of the pan. The base and the edges are where it catches first, and once you have lumps you cannot stir them out.

It is the same custard as old-fashioned rice pudding, thinned and spiced.

Then chill it overnight. This is not just about serving it cold. The starch and protein network keeps setting for hours, and the nutmeg and vanilla need that time to move through the liquid. Eggnog drunk warm from the pan is thin and tastes of hot milk.

Eggnog poured into glasses beside a bottle, dressed for Christmas
Photo: Jill Wellington / Pexels

Classic eggnog: the recipe card

A cooked custard base, chilled overnight, thick enough to coat a spoon. Nothing like the carton.

What you need

  • 6 egg yolks
  • ¾ cup (150 g) superfine sugar
  • 2 cups (480 ml) whole milk
  • 1½ cups (360 ml) heavy cream
  • 1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg, plus more to serve
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • Pinch of fine salt
  • ½ cup (120 ml) bourbon or dark rum, optional

Cooking the custard to 76°C

  1. 1 Whisk the yolks and sugar together until pale and thick, about 2 minutes. This dissolves the sugar and protects the yolks from setting too fast.
  2. 2 Heat the milk, 240 ml of the cream, the nutmeg and salt in a heavy pan until steaming but not simmering.
  3. 3 Pour the hot milk into the yolks in a thin stream, whisking constantly. Adding it slowly is what stops the yolks scrambling.
  4. 4 Return everything to the pan over low heat and stir constantly, reaching into the corners, for 8–10 minutes until it thickens to 170°F (76°C) and coats the back of a spoon.
  5. 5 Strain through a fine sieve into a pitcher — this catches anything that did set — and stir in the vanilla, the remaining cream and the bourbon if using.
  6. 6 Cool, then refrigerate at least 8 hours and ideally overnight. Serve cold with nutmeg grated over.

Nutmeg, keeping, thinning

  • Grate the nutmeg fresh. Pre-ground nutmeg loses its aromatics within weeks and this drink is built around it.
  • With alcohol it keeps a week; without, three days.
  • It thickens considerably overnight. Loosen with a splash of milk if you prefer it pourable.

If the eggnog goes lumpy

It went above 80°C. Straining rescues a mildly overcooked batch completely — pour it through a fine sieve and carry on.