Eggnog

Anna Wells Rutledge wrote the introduction to the facsimile of the 1847 edition of The Carolina Housewife, the most important of the early southern cookbooks. She quotes a Philadelphian writing home in 1842: “Before breakfast, at Christmas time, everyone takes a glass of egg-nog and a slice of cake. It is the universal custom and was not on this occasion omitted by anyone. As Christmas was kept during four days egg-nog was drank regularly every morning.” The nog is one of the most wi