I can’t believe that in all the time I’ve been blogging about music and cocktails, I’ve never written about Charles Mingus’ eggnog recipe. Pointed to it, a few times, but never discussed it.
That might be because it’s A Lot. Two shots of liquor per serving, plus whatever 151-proof rum makes it through the preparation of the eggs. One begins to understand why Mingus was prone to firing shotguns inside his apartment.
Still, aside from the sheer volume of booze to be had in each glass, the rest of the recipe—eggs, milk, cream, nutmeg—doesn’t seem that far-fetched. Well, except for the addition of ice cream at the end, but that only if you set it out at a party, to keep it chilled.
The recipe, as it was transcribed by Mingus’ biographer:
- Separate one egg for one person. Each person gets an egg.
- Two sugars for each egg, each person.
- One shot of rum, one shot of brandy per person.
- Put all the yolks into one big pan, with some milk.
- That’s where the 151 proof rum goes. Put it in gradually or it’ll burn the eggs,
- OK. The whites are separate and the cream is separate.
- In another pot– depending on how many people– put in one shot of each, rum and brandy. (This is after you whip your whites and your cream.)
- Pour it over the top of the milk and yolks.
- One teaspoon of sugar. Brandy and rum.
- Actually you mix it all together.
- Yes, a lot of nutmeg. Fresh nutmeg. And stir it up.
- You don’t need ice cream unless you’ve got people coming and you need to keep it cold. Vanilla ice cream. You can use eggnog. I use vanilla ice cream.
- Right, taste for flavor. Bourbon? I use Jamaica Rum in there. Jamaican Rums. Or I’ll put rye in it. Scotch. It depends.
- See, it depends on how drunk I get while I’m tasting it.
We’ll see if I get sufficiently inspired this holiday to actually make a batch of the stuff. But I think I’ll leave the experiment until we have a working dishwasher again (ours having bit the dust just before Christmas).