About this time every year certain people get the urge to make eggnog. I am one of them, and so is James E. Kelly Jr.
In the middle of December, Kelly and his wife, Pat, invite about 50 people over to their Baltimore County home to make massive batches of a concoction called Irish eggnog. Everybody who attends the party is assigned a job. Some folks crack the eggs, some pour in the booze, some help put the eggnog in bottles that the guests carry home.
The eggnog bottles even have labels supplied by one of Kelly's )) friends. They are printed with a message written in Gaelic. "I am not sure what it says," Kelly told me, adding that when he has asked people who read Gaelic to translate the label, they have refused. "I think somebody might be playing a joke on me," he said.
Kelly comes from a long line of eggnog makers. As a kid growing up in Baltimore, he heard family stories telling how his grandfather, George Washington Watson, made eggnog for the entire neighborhood. Going from house to house, in the area around Preston and Greenmount streets, his grandfather would mix the eggnog. Each household provided the ingredients and the wooden tub for its nog, Kelly said. His grandfather provided the expertise.
The family continued its nog-making tradition as it moved north through a series of neighborhoods. From the old Preston Street neighborhood the clan headed to Waverly, then to Govans and on to Towson.
Kelly began making his grandfather's nog in the late 1950s when he was a student at Loyola College. One of his classmates, William Byrnes, helped him, and the two of them have been making the nog every December for the past 36 years.
Over the years the two have been joined by their wives, both named Patricia, and by additional Irishmen named Philip Brady, Philip Moore, Sam Kearns, Larry Lanahan and Joe McCurdy. In the early going the nog-makers were constantly testing the recipe, Kelly said. "We used to taste every step of the way, and our wives would get irritated, and we would get silly.
"Now we are more sophisticated -- and older," said Kelly, who is 57. "We don't taste until the end."
The group's eggnog-making technology has also evolved over the years. The nog is mixed in big pots. "They are the same pots we use to steam crabs in the summer and make apple sauce in the fall," Kelly said.
Once the nog is judged ready for consumption it is moved by a series of pumps, pipes and spigots into the bottles.
"We have cut our bottling time in half," Kelly said. "It used to take us about half an hour to fill up 90 bottles. Now, with the spigot, we finish in 20 minutes tops."
Following the lead of the beverage industry, Kelly's crew has added a lighter version of the beverage to their line. Instead of the eggs and cream used in the traditional recipe, the lighter nog uses egg and cream substitutes.
The people attending the nog-making party say they like the idea of a "light" eggnog, Kelly said. But they drink about 10 times more traditional nog than the light stuff.
Compared to the festive Kelly shindig, my eggnog-making session is a quiet affair. Usually I start making my nog late at night when the kids have gone to bed. A few minutes before my own head hits the pillow, I will blend the sugar with the bourbon and let the heady mixture sit overnight. Later, sometimes several days later, I beat the egg yolks, add the whipping cream, sip the nog, and take a long winter's nap.
Worried about high cholesterol levels or the remote possibility of food poisoning, some folks have stopped using raw eggs in their nog. Instead, they use egg substitutes or pasteurized eggs. For me, the pleasure this eggy old nog delivers is worth the risk. Here are recipes for the two Kelly eggnogs and for my own.
Eggnog should be served cold. Avoid leftovers.
ORIGINAL IRISH EGGNOG
1 dozen eggs
3/4 pound of granulated sugar
1 quart milk
1 quart cream
2/3 ounce rum extract
1/3 ounce brandy extract
1/3 cup rum
1/3 cup brandy
1 750 milliliter-bottle blended whiskey or rye
Beat whole eggs, put in large pot, stirring in sugar, milk and cream. Slowly add rum and brandy extracts, then rum and brandy. Slowly mix in whiskey. Stir gently and constantly. Serves 15.
KELLY'S LITE IRISH EGGNOG
8 ounces egg substitute (Healthy Choice brand)
4 ounces granulated sugar (sugar substitutes don't work)
24 ounces light creamer (Farm Rich)
1 teaspoon rum extract
1 teaspoon brandy extract
1 ounce rum
1 ounce brandy
8 ounces blended whiskey
dash nutmeg
In a large vessel, mix egg substitute, sugar and creamer using a hand-held electric mixer and a wooden spoon. While stirring constantly, dribble in extracts, then rum, then brandy, then whiskey. Add nutmeg. Makes about 10 cups.
ROB KASPER'S EGGNOG
2 cups bourbon
1 1/8 cups sugar
6 egg yolks, beaten
4 cups whipping cream
Blend bourbon and sugar in large mixing bowl. Let sit overnight. Beat egg yolks until they turn dark yellow. Add to bourbon mixture. Mix well. Cover and let sit in refrigerator at least 2 hours. Whip cream, add to bourbon mixture. Nog starts off very creamy, becomes soupy the longer it survives. Makes 8 to 10 cups.