I love egg nog. I always have. I remember my grandfather making it fresh, blending an individual serving out of milk, eggs, and sugar. As a child I was, of course, prohibited from drinking my grandfather’s egg nog, out of fear of salmonella poisoning. Which was probably a smart thing. Being prohibited didn’t mean I never tasted it, though, and having tasted it, I never got into the commercial pre-made versions.

Until Silk Nog came along, that is. All the milk drinkers I know think Silk Nog is disgusting. I’ll concede that the addition of rum make it very chalky, so it’s not the best party drink. However, all the non-milk drinkers I know think it’s great. I guess if it’s been so long since you’ve had real nog, the sugar and fake-egg fake-creamy overtones are enough to get you by.

This year, though, I had a hankering for real nog. While I could buy some premade stuff and pop a bunch of Lactaid pills, I decided to go one better. I bought Lactaid milk and made my own from scratch. The eggs I use are purchased from a single farmer with a small flock. I know they’ve been tested for salmonella in the past, but of course you can never be totally sure. Which is to say, I would never consider making nog from any eggs I could buy in any store. I decided to take the risk with these eggs, and promised my partner that if I get salmonella, I’ll never make nog like this again.

Having embarked on this path, I have a few observations. Nog is good. Whole milk isn’t cream, but it’s plenty creamy (for me) without it. As I make it for my mid-morning snack, I don’t use alcohol. Nog is also, if you don’t have a cholesterol problem, nutritious. If eggs are nature’s perfect food, a drink made of eggs blended with a little more protein and fat with a spoonful of sugar and a dash of vanilla is the perfect presentation. Drinking raw eggs, even in such a time-honored and festive form as nog, is also funny. It calls to mind associations with extreme training regimens; I’ve been nicknamed ‘Rocky’ by my partner, and I’ve voiced the question of why people don’t just drink delicious nog instead of those nasty protein drink mixes. Salmonella, apparently (I had to be reminded).

Because I’m not actually a big dairy consumer, I haven’t been using the Lactaid milk on my cereal (I like the way rice milk tastes, actually). Which means that to go through a half-gallon of milk in a week means nog every day. Which is fine, I suppose, since I’m conceptualizing nog as a meal. In the future, though, I think I’ll hold out for the quart-sized container. It’s quite likely, though, that after drinking nog every day for a week straight there won’t be much nog in my future. We’ll see; it’s only day five.