Aged eggnog isn’t a brand new factor. Googling it’ll convey up recipes not from overwrought fringe blogs however, slightly, reputable culinary sources. I’ve personally been growing older eggnog in earnest because the winter of 2015, and a few of that inventory nonetheless stays in my fridge. The idea predates not simply experiments of practically a decade in the past, however the web age, too. Actually, George Washington’s printed eggnog recipe in an Previous Farmer’s Almanac particularly instructs growing older it in a cool place for “a number of days.” I’ve come right here to persuade you that this yr, you must make extra—rather more—eggnog than is affordable for one family, after which age it. For a number of days, weeks, months—even years.

Whereas it’s confirmed that extended growing older above 14 p.c ABV causes the booze to sterilize any potential pathogens, at the moment’s nog-aging nuts do it for the improved taste. Take into account Frederic Yarm, who created a nitro-infused aged eggnog for Cambridge’s Loyal 9 in 2015; or former Porchlight beverage director Nicholas Bennett, whose aged model has develop into so well-known round New York Metropolis that it appeared in Sother Teague’s 2018 guide I’m Simply Right here for the Drinks. And at The Trendy, New York bartender Patrick Smith created a barrel-aged eggnog with crème anglaise and a mixture of brandy, rum, Scotch and sherry in 2018. “It ended up tasting implausible, with the vanilla and spice flavors from the barrel actually tempering the alcohol content material and usually rounding issues out, whereas one way or the other additionally making it extra full-bodied and decadent,” he says.

However you don’t want a nitrogen rig or a barrel to do it at dwelling. If you happen to poke round on Fb and Reddit, you’ll see that the majority novice dwelling bartenders appear to comply with Alton Brown’s recipe, which first appeared in 2005. It’s the place I began my exploration as nicely. However, within the years since, I’ve decided that aged eggnog just about all the time “works” it doesn’t matter what base spirits you use, it doesn’t matter what specs you employ—Punch’s most popular eggnog recipe from Max Overstrom-Coleman is an effective place to start out. 

You’ll be able to even combine batches from totally different years. At Pasjoli in Santa Monica, the batch has been going robust for seven years, and at Corvino in Kansas Metropolis, Missouri, the apply began simply earlier than the pandemic’s arrival. “After I took over the bar program at Corvino Supper Membership and Tasting Room in February 2020, I inherited a pair gallons of Adam Chase’s eggnog left over from the vacations,” says Hannah Jones, who was the lead bartender at Corvino and is now the overall supervisor on the Resort Kansas Metropolis. “When the entire world shut down a month later … my husband and I had been joking round a couple of ‘solera-style nog,’ and I made a decision to place Adam’s gallons into mine earlier than sealing them into vacuum baggage to age till Thanksgiving.” The consequence? An eggnog that Jones describes as “liquid gold.”