Drinking Eggstacy

If you have been reading the Mixoloseum in recent months, you know that there is a well established history of egg usage in drinks during the Christmas season. Wassail, Tom & Jerry, and of course, egg nog all rely on eggs to achieve their rich seasonal goodness. But historically, eggs have been popular in a great many mixed drinks, not just the winter variety.

Raw eggs impart no real flavor to a cocktail. In fact, they have the opposite effect, tending to lessen the intensity of flavor from the other ingredients. So why use egg at all? Because they contribute a feature to the drink that very few modern bartenders ever think about: texture. An egg white lends the pisco sour a smooth, velvety mouthfeel, not to mention a frothy, creamy head. Without the whole egg called for in the coffee cocktail the drink would be nothing but a pale shadow of the rich, luscious beverage it is. (If you have never tried these drinks, stop reading and go make them right now.) An egg won’t make a bad drink good, but it will occasionally make a good drink superlative.

Sadly, the FDA, in its never ending quest to make all food taste bad, has convinced most Americans that chicken eggs are little encrusted salmonella bombs. Consequently, I frequently have to resort to secrecy, dares, and various forms of insult and cajoling to convince friends to try anything with egg in it. But this is silly (and regrettable). If you have ever eaten chocolate mousse, a freshly made caesar salad, or one of those delicious seared ahi sandwiches with wasabi aioli, then you were most likely eating raw egg. For that matter, if you’ve ever eaten a fried egg with a runny yolk, you should know that it never go hot enough to kill off any bacteria it might have been harboring. The moral of the story here is that many people are eating raw or semi-raw eggs all the time, but almost none of them experience any ill effects. Now, a bit of back ground.

HISTORY

As any cocktail historian will tell you, usage of the term “cocktail” as a generic for any alcoholic mixed drink is a somewhat modern development. Prior to prohibition, a cocktail was one genre of drink among many, including cobblers, highballs, sours, smashes, fizzes, and so forth. One popular class of drink was the flip, which Robert Hess defines as, “an egg-based drink made by combining a spirit and/or wine with a sweetening ingredient and a whole egg. The ingredients are shaken with ice or rolled back and forth between two glasses before they’re strained into a wine glass and garnished with nutmeg.” You may still come across a gin flip, on occasion, and a quick google search will land you recipes for brandy flips and sherry flips, all worth trying.

Another phylum of drinks that often used egg, at least for a time, is the sour. Unlike the flip, sours were not historically made with eggs. That tradition developed in Europe while America was suffering through prohibition, but the trend was quickly imported after repeal. If you haven’t tried a whisky sour with an egg white, or perhaps more importantly, William Schmidt’s delicious sour, you should do so.

USAGE

It should go without saying that any eggs to be consumed raw should be fresh. Look for smaller sized eggs if you can find them. Some cocktails call for half an egg white. Trying to split an egg white in half is an exercise in absurdity—either double the drink recipe, look into stocking quail eggs, or toss in the whole white and enjoy the drink with a richer mouthfeel. For drinks like the pisco sour (or most any sour), where you want a thick frothy head, some additional effort is needed. Some insist on hand beating the white with a fork. I have had good luck adding all the ingredients and dry shaking (i.e. without ice), and then adding the ice and shaking again. Just be aware that after dry shaking an egg white, your shaker will want to explode. Open with care. Always double strain. When adding ingredients to the shaker, start with the egg and add low proof booze first. Adding a shot of 151° directly to an egg white will curdle it and gunk up your strainer. And finally, be aware that egg drastically reduces the burn from high proof alcohol. While this is a nice perk, it results in drinks that are deceptively potent. If not careful, you could lower the inhibitions of your cocktail party guests a bit further than you intended. Be aware.

Drinks

Its still cold outside, so for the first drink I wanted something rich and decadent. Add a little soda water if you want to lighten it up.

Nut Nog
• 2 oz Laird’s Bonded Apple Brandy
• 1 oz Castries
• 1/4 oz B&B
• 1/4 oz Frangelico
• 1/4 oz Pimento Dram
• 1 whole egg
• 1 dash Fee’s Whiskey Barrel Bitters

Shake everything in an iced shaker and strain into a chilled mug. Grind a little allspice on top.

The ‘Chaça Sour
• 1 1/2 oz Cachaça
• 1 oz Maraschino (Preferably Maraska. Add a bit of simple syrup if using Luxardo.)
• 1 oz lime juice
• 1 egg white
• 2 dashes Fee’s Whiskey Barrel Bitters

Dry shake everything but the bitters to foam the egg. Add ice and shake again. Strain into a wine glass, drip bitters on top.

The Procrastinator
• 1 oz Jamaican dark rum (I like Myers’s)
• 1 oz lemonhart 151°
• 1/2 oz fresh lime juice
• 1/2 oz fresh lemon juice
• 3/4 oz falernum
• 3/4 oz orgeat
• 3 dashes orange bitters (Fee Brothers)
• 1 whole egg

Shake everything in an iced shaker, pour into a pint glass, top with soda. This is one of the very first drinks I concocted. I had recently discovered Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails and just received my first order of syrups and orange bitters from Fee Brothers. As the name suggests, I was also in the middle of writing my undergraduate thesis.

Enjoy.

Tagged as: egg, flip, history, Mixology, sour