This homemade eggnog is steeped with fresh nutmeg, cinnamon sticks, and vanilla beans for deep, rich smoothness. It’s up to you if you leave it virgin for the whole family to enjoy or tip in some bourbon; the gentle heat of sous vide will mellow out the alcohol as if you aged it for weeks. Or just make a half-and-half batch so everyone can choose what they want!
Eggs are pasteurized once the yolk reaches a temperature of 138°F. This eggnog ‘cooks’ in the sous vide bath at 144°F, ensuring the eggs are completely pasteurized while staying safely below scrambling temperature.
While this eggnog meets the definition of pasteurization, you should never make anything you’re not comfortable with. I have a very laissez-faire attitude about experimenting in the kitchen – especially when there’s only a 0.03% chance of contamination without pasteurization, which is then 100% sterile after mixing with booze – but it’s still not for everyone.
I hope this 12 Drinks of Christmas series sparks all sorts of new ideas for celebrating the holidays! I’m sharing a new drink recipe every Tuesday, Thursday, & Saturday from Thanksgiving ’til Christmas. Thursday drinks are family-friendly favorites; the rest of the week is cocktails, mulled wines, sangrias, and all sorts of boozy party goodies to celebrate the season. Cheers!
Longer resting time will let the boozy flavors mellow out, although quite of lot of mellowing happens thanks to sous vide warming. Without bourbon, this should keep in the fridge for a week; with bourbon, it will essentially keep forever thanks to bacteria-killing alcohol. Booze to the rescue again!
So what do you think – worth the extra effort of sous viding so you can enjoy it right away? Me, I’ll happily give it an hour so I don’t have to wait overnight!
12 Drinks of Christmas
Sous Vide Spiced Eggnog
Ingredients
- 4 eggs
- 2 egg yolks
- 2 cups whole milk
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1/4 - 1/2 whole nutmeg grated
- 1/4 t. salt
- 1 vanilla bean or 1 T. vanilla extract
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 2 quart mason jars
- 1 cup bourbon (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat sous vide bath to 144°F / 62°C.
- Add eggs, egg yolks, milk, cream, sugar, nutmeg, and salt to a blender.
- Split the vanilla bean in half and scrape the seeds & juices into the blender. Set the pods aside.
- Blend on high until a thick white foam builds on top - see note.
- Place one cinnamon stick and half of the vanilla pod in each jar. Pour eggnog evenly into jars. If using bourbon, add now.
- Screw lids on 'fingertip tight', just until you feel resistance, and submerge jars in sous vide bath.
- Cook at 144°F / 62°C for 1 hour.
- Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled. Serve cold garnished with grated nutmeg. Store in the refrigerator.
Notes
This egg nog looks amazing! I hope you will be posting your recipe for the Christmas sangria that you brought to the party that you catered For Us.
Thanks so much, Debi! So glad you liked the sangria, it’ll be posted next Saturday. 🙂
Hi! I know this post was from a while ago, but made this with my daughter this weekend. We both love eggnog, and I was looking for a new recipe for my sous vide setup. After making this, I have a few comment/questions.
First, I did not have a nutmeg to grind up, so I used pre ground nutmeg. Based on the ~3 teaspoons ground nutmeg to 1 whole nutmeg, we went with 1-1/2 teaspoons. WAY too much! 🙂 Need to back that off to 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of ground nutmeg.
Also, the consistency of the eggnog was pretty thin; like drinking spiced, sweetened milk. Is this recipe meant to be thin, or should it be thicker? When you blend, how long do you blend for? I blended for about 1 min, but wondering if a longer blend time would thicken it up some. Any suggestions here would be great!
Thanks for sharing!!
Hi Jared, thanks so much for trying this recipe – great questions!
I definitely like my eggnog with LOTS of nutmeg (maybe too much!) and fresh is even more potent than ground. Your feedback is really helpful so I’ll add a note for other readers.
It should be quite thick. Blender motors vary quite a bit so I didn’t include a time, but mine took about 5 minutes to create a thick foam. Something high-powered like a Vitamix would be even quicker, but an inexpensive blender could take up to 10 minutes. I’ve added a time range to the instructions as well.
Thank you for trying the recipe & leaving a comment! I’d love to hear what you think if you make it again!
Hi! Thanks for the prompt feedback, and the clarification on the blend time! I suspected that the eggnog was thin due to a short blending, because of how heavy cream will get thick after a long whipping (whipped cream). Next batch I will blend for much longer, and keep an eye on the thickness.
One more question: Do you suppose I could take what eggnog I have left and put it back in the blender, to see if it will thicken up? I suspect it will, but not sure how the cooking would impact the thicken of the eggnog.
Thanks again! 🙂
You know, that’s a great question – I believe it should thicken, although maybe not as much as it would pre-cooking. I don’t see how it could hurt so give it a try!