It was an open secret that General Sam Houston was a high functioning alcoholic. As the year 1836 began he resolved to clean up his act and improve his public image. On January 2, he wrote his friend and political ally Don Carlos Barrett: “I am most miserably cool and sober, so you can [say] to all my friends, instead of egg-nog I eat roasted eggs in my office.”
Nowadays, eggnog is most closely associated with Christmas but early Texians enjoyed it year round. That said, it remained a central component of up-scale Christmas festivities. On December 25, 1837, Augustus and Charlotte Allen hosted visitor Mary Austin Holley. Augustus, along with his younger brother John Kerby Allen, was a co-founder of the Bayou City, while Charlotte more than earned her designation as the “Mother of Houston.” Mrs. Holley wrote her children, reported the Allens were “very genteel people & lived well.” They certainly lived well that day. Their guests took their fill of eggnog. As eggs were demanding prices as high as fifty cents each, such hospitality was all the more impressive.
Mrs. Allen’s recipe resembled the one below. I have imbibed it on several occasions and can attest to its potency. General Houston’s—or anyone protective of his sobriety—would have done well to celebrate with coffee.
Best wishes for a healthy and prosperous 2026,
Steve
Beat yolks of twelve eggs well. Add two and a fourth cups of sugar and continue to beat well. Add one quart of good Brandy, one pint of Jamacia Rum alternately and slowly. To this add three quarts of heavy cream and fold in half of the beaten egg whites. Beat remaining six egg whites very stiff and add one cup of powdered sugar. Then stir lightly into this one quart of cream and fold this mixture into the other ingredients. Let stand from six to twelve hours in a cold place before serving.
Reference Mrs Helen Bullock, the Williamsburg Art of Cookery or, Accomplish’d Gentlewoman’s Companion: Being a Collection of upwards of Five Hundred of the most Ancient & Approv’d Recipes in Virginia Cookery (Williamsburg: Published by Colonian Williamsburg, and printed by The Dietz Press in Richmond, VA 1838.