*Recent ruminations from LUPEC Boston, as originally published in the Weekly Dig.
by Pink Lady
Despite a scathing New York Times review for its caloric content, eggnog is all the rage this time of year. That’s all well and good to be sure. Before eggnog was the Xmas drink de rigeur, there was Tom & Jerry, a beverage well worth reviving as the cold weather cometh.
Tom & Jerry is famously credited to legendary sporting man and bar star, Professor Jerry Thomas. In his rendition, the Professor invented the drink in 1847 for a man who’d originally requested an egg beaten up in sugar. He went on to spike it with booze and hot water: “It was the one thing I’d been dreaming of for months,” he told a reporter. “I named the drink after myself, kinder familiarly,” choosing Tom & Jerry after his two pet white mice “as Jeremiah P. Thomas would have sounded rather heavy, and that wouldn’t have done for a beverage.”
Numerous references to the drink from the 1820s, 30s, and 40s prove this story isn’t true, but it sure makes a colorful anecdote. What we do know about the Tom & Jerry is that it hails from New England and was trotted out at every bar worth its bourbon when the temperatures dropped. Traditionally batched in a china bowl and doled out in little “shaving mugs”, the frothy beverage warmed imbibers well into the spring months.
Eventually Tom & Jerry disappeared from all but the most traditional saloons. Let’s bring it back this holiday season, shall we?
TOM & JERRY (single serving)
1 egg
.5 oz simple syrup
1 oz dark rum
1 oz Cognac
Hot milk or hot water
Grated nutmeg for garnish
Separate the egg white from the egg yolk and beat them separately. Fold the beaten eggs together and place into a “shaving mug”, regular mug, or Irish coffee glass. Add the sugar or simple syrup, dark rum and brandy.
Cin-cin!
fancybrandy
Hanky Panky
joseypackard
Pink Lady
Pinky Gonzales
Hoskins
thepinkgin
Then the hot water/milk on top? I’ve been wanting to make one of these for a while!
Yup! Enjoy!
What a shame that short thrift is given to the Southern alternative to eggnog at Christmastide, and something that was our Tennessee family’s traditional family tipple: boiled custard. Yeah, a bitch to make because it calls for constant stirring while cooking in a double boiler, but when properly made and chilled it is a silky sweet, eggy rich fluid with that lovely kiss of vanilla, and a superior carrier for that de rigeur shot of bourbon or Tennessee whiskey (commonly known down them thar parts as “flavoring”).
That dose of flavoring was the only spirit some of my conservative “Campbellite” forebears had all year. Evidently the non-observance of Christmas by The Church of Christ gave them licence to celebrate their own brand of it, and boiled custard with flavoring was therefore a relished treat. One great aunt was greatly enamored with her dose of flavoring in her boiled custard, to the point of always asking for “jes’ a tetch more flavorin'” in each serving.