In the above picture, you see the Nog Brothers. Antônio Rogério Nogueira A.K.A. “Minotouro” and Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira, A.K.A. “Minotauro.” Twins from Brasil known as Little and Big Nog for their respective MMA weight classes, heavyweight and light heavyweight. Apparently, it is not uncommon for Brazilian twins to share the same name. Oh wait, wrong nog…

Each year at Rustic we save a little less of a gallon of our egg nog for the next year and so on and so forth. The tradition started with The Ranfer, was passed to The Dawg, and now it is in my hands. I’ve been carrying the torch since 2018, so, five years now, and I’m pretty sure the other two guys did it for five years, so this puppy is now going on it’s first decade. Gross you say? Well…You could think that way until you see just how much booze goes into it. I made up a big batch yesterday and even I was shocked and surprised by just how much alcohol the recipe called for. Denise commented, “You said the same thing last year, why do you think it tastes so good?”

Yeah, it tastes real good. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, dairy and booze go together like strippers and bruises. Maybe that’s the wrong metaphor…Uh, Dairy and booze fit together like priests and children…No, no, no…Uh, dairy and booze flow together like Richards and Jagger? Better but not great.

Solera method is a technique used in sherry, and believe it or not, sour mash whiskey, sourdough bread making, etc. You take a portion of your old batch and add it to your new batch. That’s all. It’s a crucial thing for some fermentations and keeps the original “mother” going for as long as you want it. With nog, it’s more of a bragging point than anything. Keeping it from year to year doesn’t impart much flavor, or maybe it does…I don’t know. There’s no fermentation to speak of with nog, that’s been finished already with the booze portion which includes, bourbon, Jamaican rum, cognac, and some other stuff.

There are a few bullet points to making nog that I’ll share but I keep this particular recipe secret. Sorry, it’s one of the few things I’ll take to the grave. I used The Ranfer’s original recipe the first year and in subsequent years following I tweaked it to my own specifications…More cream, less milk, some amaro, other ingredients…

With nog there’s two big rules other than “Never add citrus.”

1. Always mix the egg yolks and sugar together before doing anything else, otherwise you’ll just have a giant mess on your hands. Trust me on this one.
2. Once you’ve got your nog mixed, wait at least two to three weeks to serve it. What? Yeah. The longer the better. The more it sits, the thicker it gets. You want it nice and thick. I’m not sure why this happens but I’m guessing it’s the yolks and sugar absorbing everything? Who knows?

That’s about it. It’s like cookies without the flour. Most bar stuff seems to live along those same lines. A pastry chef without the gluten. Dairy and booze dance and frolic together like two old hippies on mushrooms at a Dead concert.