Jazz legend and Harlem fave Charles Mingus enjoyed a spirit-forward cocktail, and he appreciated boozy alcoholic beverages all year round—including the holidays. Mingus allegedly had the best and deadliest eggnog recipe of them all.
Mingus’ eggnog, which features a healthy dose of 151 rum, bourbon, and then more rum, was top secret throughout his life, making him a hot commodity once the holidays rolled around. Mingus’ biographer, Janet Coleman, describes Charles’ holiday spirit in her book Mingus/Mingus: Two Memoirs:
“Mingus’s holiday eggnog was a concoction so delicious and mind-blowing, you would do anything to make sure that you saw him at Christmas. Over the phone once, he gave me the recipe.”
That recipe was released to the world by Coleman, who felt everyone should be privy to the best eggnog recipe ever, and included it in her book.
Here are Mingus wonderful ingredients:
- Separate one egg for one person. Each person gets an egg.
- Two sugars for each egg, each person.
- One shot of rum, one shot of brandy per person.
- Put all the yolks into one big pan, with some milk.
- That’s where the 151 proof rum goes. Put it in gradually or it’ll burn the eggs,
- OK. The whites are separate and the cream is separate.
- In another pot- depending on how many people- put in one shot of each, rum and brandy. (This is after you whip your whites and your cream.)
- Pour it over the top of the milk and yolks.
- One teaspoon of sugar. Brandy and rum.
- Actually you mix it all together.
- Yes, a lot of nutmeg. Fresh nutmeg. And stir it up.
- You don’t need ice cream unless you’ve got people coming and you need to keep it cold. Vanilla ice cream. You can use eggnog. I use vanilla ice cream.
- Right, taste for flavor. Bourbon? I use Jamaica Rum in there. Jamaican Rums. Or I’ll put rye in it. Scotch. It depends.
- See, it depends on how drunk I get while I’m tasting it.
The staff of the Village Voice made a batch of Mingus’ nog (above), and found that while the directions were a little hard to follow (it was secret for a reason), it had at least two shots of booze per glass, tasted like there was no booze, and went down real easy.
Please drink responsibly.
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