As long ago as in the period when Shakespeare wrote his plays we find chronicled: "Nog is a kind of strong beer brewed in East Anglia." In writings two hundred years later we find records of such a brew as "egg-nog" in which "the white and yolk of eggs are stirred with hot beer, cider, wine, or spirits."

In 1825 New Yorkers read in a newspaper called Brother Jonathan, that the "egg-nog had gone about rather freely" at a certain party. A score of years later A. 0. Hall, stopping at the old St. Charles Hotel while in the Crescent City gathering material for his Manhattaner in New Orleans, popular book of its day, "trembled to think of the juleps, and punches, and nogs, and soups," consumed in the dining-room of that famed hostelry.

Much liquor has flowed over the bars since Nog was originally described as an ale brewed in East Anglia, now modern Norfolk and Suffolk in England. Every egg-nog recipe today calls for milk or cream; none for ale or hot beer. Time changes everything. Blessed be time for some of the changes it makes in our cups of cheer!

Following are recipes for the best eggnog we have ever tasted.

The sailor toasts thy charms in flip and grog; The Norwich Weaver drinks thee deep in Nog." 177 U.

Sidoux's Holiday Eggnog

6 eggs

6 tablespoons powdered sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

½pint brandy

½ pint rum

2 pints heavy whipping cream

First beat the egg yolks well, add the cup of granulated sugar slowly, and then just enough of the cream to give the mixture a pale lemon color. Next add the brandy and rum, beating hard while the liquors are poured in. Whip the remaining cream and add. Then whip the egg whites dry and add the powdered sugar and fold—do not beat—into the mixture.

The Creoles have "little" names for the people and things they love, "Sidoux" (pronounced See-doo, and meaning "so sweet"), is a love name bestowed upon a little girl we knew. She isn't a little girl any lon­ger. She has grown up and developed into the World's Number One cheer dispenser and above is her prescription for speeding up holiday merriment. It is as sweet as her name and a lot less innocent.

Sidoux tells us this Christmas mixture will keep in the ice box for many days. (Note by author: only under lock and key.)

Whiskey Eggnog

1 jigger whiskey

1 raw egg

1 cup thin cream

1 spoon sugar

Mix in barglass, pour in shaker half-filled with fine ice and shake well. Strain in a thin glass and grate nutmeg on top. Brandy or rum can take the place of whiskey.

There you have the eggnog in its simplest com­position—but good to the last drop. Try it for proof.

As we have warned you, there are many recipes for genuine nogs brewed in the modern manner—a far cry from the ale and cider styles in vogue in Merrie England a century or two ago.

Tom and Jerry

eggs sugar brandy rum

Take as many eggs as the number of drinks you expect to serve and beat the whites to a stiff froth. Add one heaping teaspoon sugar for each egg white. The egg yolks are beaten separately. Mix the whites and yolks and sugar together with a pinch of bicarbonate of soda and place in a large bowl, stirring occasionally to prevent the sugar from settling.

To serve: Take two tablespoons of the above mixture and put in a crockery mug. Add Vs jigger brandy and Vz jigger rum, fill to the top with hot milk or cream (or boiling hot water). Stir with a spoon and grate a little nutmeg on top.

Runner up for holiday honors is this celebrated drink named for the two titular characters in Pierce Egan's book, Life in London, or days and Nights of Jerry Hawthorne and his Elegant friend Corinthian Tom, a fictional pair of rakes and sporting bloods of the Regency period in Merrie England. First ap­pearing in print in 1821, the book's two characters took on new fame with the naming of this instanta­neously popular drink in their honor, and with the fact that drinking places became "Tom and Jerries" instead of tap rooms.

When and how the drink found popularity in Amer­ica or when it was first served in New Orleans is not known, but references to it appeared almost a cen­tury ago.

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