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Cocoa Eggnogg
Beat the white of an egg until very stiff, and add, while beating constantly, one teaspoonful of sugar, one teaspoonful of cocoa, and a pinch of salt. Divide the mixture, and to one half add three fourths of a cup of cold milk, beating all the time. Serve in a tall glass with the remaining egg mixture on top.
A single-glass drink built on a raw, uncooked egg white, which is where the problem lies. The notes below explain the hazard and clear up two points of period vocabulary.
- The egg is never cookedNothing in this recipe brings the egg white above room temperature — it is beaten stiff, sweetened, and served immediately in cold milk. Shell eggs can carry Salmonella on the shell and within the white and yolk, and beating spreads any contamination through the whole glass.
- Why the old book saw no riskEgg drinks like this were commonly given to children and invalids in the early twentieth century, before the link between shell eggs and Salmonella Enteritidis was established. That link is well documented now, and modern guidance is against serving uncooked egg to children, the elderly, or anyone with a weakened immune system.
- No safe adjustment is offered hereThere is no time or temperature that can be added to the method above, because the method has no heating step at all. If you want a cocoa eggnog, use a current recipe written for pasteurized egg product or a cooked custard base.
- "Cocoa" in this periodIt means plain unsweetened cocoa powder, the kind sold for baking and for hot cocoa made with added sugar — not a modern sweetened drinking-chocolate mix, which would throw the sugar well out of balance.
- YieldThe proportions make one tall glass: three quarters of a cup of milk with half the egg foam beaten in, and the reserved half spooned on top as a cap.
Eggnog traditionally combines spirits — brandy, rum or whisky — with egg, sugar and milk, and a version like this omits the liquor while keeping the festive look of the original. Egg drinks served in a tall glass with a foam cap were also familiar from American soda fountains of the early twentieth century.