Tom and Jerry

Latte lovers, this is the winter cocktail for you.

Hot Tom and Jerry, a Christmastime drink made famous in song and story, has been out of fashion for – well, a couple of generations.  I think it’s high time this delicious drink made a comeback.  It takes a bit of assembly, but one frothy, boozy sip, scented with warm spices, and you’ll be hooked.    

The Tom and Jerry has two parts: a thick, silky batter, plus hot milk spiked with booze.  The batter is like magic: rich, creamy, and spicy with cloves and nutmeg, it delivers a mouthfeel you won’t believe.  The secret ingredient is egg whites, beaten till they’re as light as a sweet, delicious cloud. 

The Ideal Bartender’s Tom and Jerry recipe is more like a general description than useful instructions – the kind of “grandma recipe” that's vague about quantities and leaves out steps that apparently seemed obvious at the time.  It's not the recipe we used, but here it is nonetheless:

TOM AND JERRY

Make a batter by separating the yolks from whites of a given number of
Eggs; beating the whites to a stiff froth and stirring the yolks until
very thin. Then mix together in a Tom and Jerry bowl, stirring in Bar
Sugar slowly until the batter is stiff and serve as follows:

Fill Tom and Jerry Mug 1/4 full of Batter.

1/2 jigger Rum.
1/2 jigger Brandy.

Stir well with Bar spoon; fill up with Hot Water; stir more; grate
Nutmeg on top and serve.

Here’s an actually workable recipe that gave us great results:

New York Times Tom and Jerry

Halved and slightly adapted version.  Makes enough batter for about 5 large drinks. 

Batter ingredients:

3 eggs, separated

½ pound sugar

1 tbsp rum

1 ½ tbsp vanilla extract

3/8 tsp ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp ground allspice

1/8 tsp ground cloves

1/8 tsp or pinch ground nutmeg

dash Angostura bitters

To make batter:

Separate eggs, whites in one bowl, yolks in a larger one.  Using a hand or stand mixer, beat the yolks until thin and smooth.  Continue beating and gradually add sugar, rum, vanilla, spices and bitters.  Set this bowl aside and wash beaters thoroughly.  Then beat egg whites until stiff.  Carefully fold into yolk mixture.  Be gentle, but keep mixing till fully blended.  Finished batter will be quite thick, a bit thicker than cake batter.  Refrigerate if not using immediately. 

Drink ingredients:

¼ cup batter

6 oz. milk

1 oz. rum

1 oz. brandy or Cognac

To make one drink:

Choose an approximately 10-ounce mug and heat it up with boiling water or in the oven.  In a small saucepan, heat milk to the boil (then remove from heat).  Add rum, brandy, and batter to the mug, then fill with milk, stirring briskly with a whisk or fork – don’t worry about deflating the batter – so everything is well mixed.  Top with a grating of nutmeg. 

I’ll note that for me, 10 ounces is a fairly large drink (perhaps because I'm not that used to drinking milk).  If I were serving a crowd, or if I intended to be drinking Tom and Jerrys all evening, I would make smaller ones. 

The brandy we used here is not our usual variety, but is particularly vanilla-forward, which worked very well in this context.  With plenty of nutmeg and clove notes, this drink smells to me like eggnog.  The eggnog of my childhood, that is – a fancy and mysterious beverage for grown-ups – before I grew up and discovered that supermarket eggnog isn't really delicious unless you're nine.

The beaten egg whites give it a foamy crown that’s almost identical to a latte – and similarly (this is a secret about the latte that not everyone knows), it’s best to begin drinking it immediately.  Five minutes later, it’ll still be delicious, but the first 60 seconds are magic. 

A note for the doubtful: Tom Bullock and all his customers suffered no harm from consuming the occasional raw egg, and neither have I. If it bothers you, do what cocktail bars do and buy pasteurized raw eggs, which are available at most supermarkets.