Eggnog's Checkered Past

Our beloved Christmas drink, eggnog, has not only fuelled debates amongst food historians but also has created a riot and sent a man to jail. Yes, clearly there's more to this drink than "meets the eye."

Providing an exact location and time for the drink's origin has prompted many theories, which have been widely debated on the Internet. Our "innocent looking" holiday drink has left a few ruffled feathers behind on more than one occasion.

Citing historical manuscripts and medieval cookbooks, food historians have come up with three intertwined theories regarding its origin. The first theory, and probably the most popular with Americans, claims that the drink, if made with eggs, milk, sugar and rum, could be an American creation dating back to our Colonial ancestors according to Robert Sietsema, author of Nothing But Nog.

"It's tempting to assume eggnog is British, partly on the basis of the Anglo-Saxon derivation of the name, and partly because of English punches it resembles. But what if eggnog is really an American invention? That would explain why, unlike the English prototypes, no modern American version features ale or beer. Also, the presence of rum in our most common recipes is a reminder that rum -- a byproduct of the trade in sugar cane and slaves in the New World -- was the most abundant alcohol in the Colonies. Finally, an additional piece of evidence for an American origin involves Alexis Soyer, the French expatriate chef and enterprising humanitarian who invented the soup kitchen to address the Irish famine and the camp stove to cook for wounded Crimean War soldiers. It seems one of Soyer's more harebrained schemes, described by Sarah Freeman in her book "Mutton & Oysters," was to open an American-style bar in London serving American cocktails. One of the cocktails prominently mentioned? Eggnog, of course." ¹