Well, my grandmother always used the Joy of Cooking recipe from the 1963 edition. I have to cut down the amount of alcohol though, it's too much for me.
12 egg whites
about 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
Beat the whites and cream of tartar together till stiff. Set aside. Then using same beaters:
12 egg yolks
1 c. dark rum
1 lb. confectioner's sugar (I don't use the whole box, believe me it will be plenty sweet if you use 1/2 to 3/4 of a box)
Beat yolks till light, then beat in sugar, then gradually beat in rum.
Clean off the beaters, then beat together
1 cup bourbon or Jameson's
2 quarts cream (original recipe calls for all heavy cream, I use half light and half heavy)
Gently mix together the egg whites, the yolk/rum mixture, and the cream mixture in a serving bowl. Wash the beaters again and make some real whipped cream with vanilla. I don't put any sugar in the real whipped cream because the eggnog itself is so sweet. Sprinkle cinnamon + nutmeg on the bowl of nog, then serve in cups with a dollop of whipped cream.
This is a lot of alcohol, regardless. Even DH can't stand more than a few cups of this over the course of the holiday.
Individual egg custards:
Per serving:
1 egg
2 tbsp. sugar
1/2 c. half-and-half
Flavoring of choice: vanilla, cinnamon, any kind of flavored extract you like. I like to heat up the half-and-half with lemon verbena teabags or else chai spice teabags, but DH prefers the half-and-half made like hot chocolate/cocoa. If you do this, heat the half-and-half on low heat on the stovetop for about 10 min until barely scalded, then remove it from the heat and let the teabags soak in until cooled to lukewarm. Remove teabags before using the half-and-half in the recipe, obviously.
With a wire whisk, mix the eggs and sugar and half-and-half till the sugar dissolves. Pour into individual oven-resistant bowls, then set the bowls in a roasting pan with 1" of water in. I use boring old jelly jars for this recipe--used to have the recipe for one big custard that was supposed to be made in a fancy bowl, but either I never have that bowl clean or else I don't have eight jelly jars clean all at once.
