Old Shanghai Eggnog

Oh, how they loved eggnog in old Shanghai.  But of course: it was very boozy, very fun, and very rich, which is a pretty apt description for the spirit of old Shanghai. And luckily for us, their recipes survive. So just in time for Christmas partying, we bring you a pair of delightful, delicious 1920s Shanghai eggnog recipes from the (secret, in some cases) recipe files of Shanghailanders John Stauffer Potter and George P. Hunt, and the equally delicious stories behind them.

Caveat: Shanghailanders liked their liquor A LOT, and these eggnog recipes are suitably boozy. Not for the faint-hearted!

John Potter’s Shanghai Eggnog 

“Lucille Bassett’s southern eggnog recipe, per John Stauffer Potter” comes to us from John’s daughter, Patricia Luce Chapman. Née Patricia Lee Potter, she was born in Shanghai in 1926 at the Country Hospital to American businessman John Potter and journalist Edna Lee Booker (the author of News is My Job and Flight from China, the latter written with John).

Left: John Potter, in his Shanghai Volunteer Corps uniform. Center: John Potter and Edna Lee Booker, on their wedding day. Right: Patricia and John, at Jessfield Park (Zhongshan Park today).

Patricia, her brother John, and their mother left China in 1941, and in 2014, when her memoir of growing up in old Shanghai was published (Tea on the Great Wall: An American Girl in War-Torn China), she told us in an interview that she’d never return.

But she did return, in November 2015, to speak at the World Congress on Art Deco. Seventy-four years after she’d left, she delighted in rediscovering her Shanghai – including, with the help of Shanghai researchers Bill Savadove and Duncan Hewitt, her Columbia Circle house.

Left, top: Patricia speaking at the World Congress on Art Deco; Left, bottom: The Potters’ Columbia Circle house; Right: Some of the Potters’ servants. (from left) Coolie, Number 2 Boy, No. 1 Boy

John Potter worked for Asia Realty and the Bank of China, and served on the Shanghai Municipal Council, the governing body of the International Settlement. He was a member of the Shanghai Club, the Columbia Country Club – where he met his wife – and the Shanghai Volunteer Corps. The family lived in a house on Columbia Circle (95 Amherst Avenue) with a complement of ten servants, and loved to entertain. Both Edna Lee Booker’s memoir and Patricia’s contain anecdotes about their sumptuous dinner parties and talented Cook, who no doubt was the one who would whip up this classic Southern eggnog recipe every Christmas.

Patricia Luce Chapman  passed away in December 2018 ~ we dedicate this recipe to her memory.

JOHN POTTER’S SHANGHAI EGGNOG

via Lucille Bassett

Ingredients

3 dozen egg yolks
4 lbs granulated sugar
Cream the above well

Add:
2 ½ to 3 bottles of good brandy
2 bottles Rye Whiskey (or Bourbon)
1 large tumbler of dark Jamaican rum
Stir, then add:
2 ½ pints whipping cream
4 pints of milk

Before serving, add:
1 ½ pints whipped cream and sprinkle nutmeg over each cup.
Makes 16 bottles = 160 drinks

Each bottle will serve 9 to 11.   Serves 50-60 guests.

George P. Hunt’s Shanghai Garage Eggnog

Aging eggnog for a year in a 1920s Shanghai garage? Sounds like a recipe for disaster, but by all accounts, it was sublime. In 1926, George P. Hunt first tasted this magical brew at a Christmas soiree held at the Yuyuan Road (#160) home of Mr. and Mrs. Otis Terrell. A few years earlier, the Terrells had obtained the recipe from Carl Seitz, a Virginian who worked for the China Import and Export Lumber Company. Hunt’s taste of that eggnog set him on a quest to obtain the closely-guarded recipe.

Since both George Hunt and Mrs. Terrell both worked at Liggett and Myers Tobacco, sales agents for the Tobacco Products Company–which happened to be Mr. Terrell’s employer–George had ample opportunity to pester the Terrells for the secret recipe. It’s a testament to the dogged determination of both parties that it took seven years for Otis to relinquish the recipe. Once George had the holy grail of eggnogs, he made it his annual tradition for the next 60 years.

The Shanghai aged eggnog recipe became internet famous in 2006, when George’s grandson, James, shared the recipe and the story on chow.com. People began testing it against the freshly made kind, and for the most part, the aged version came out ahead.

Yes, you heard right: raw eggs, cream, milk, and a lot of booze, left sitting for a year (George Hunt aged his in a crock in his home garage, 135 Weihaiwei Road). The generous quantity of alcohol is the key: this is what kills the bacteria, so don’t stint on it (a Shanghailander never would have!). For the science behind it, click here.

Here’s to the spirit of old Shanghai!

George P. Hunt’s Shanghai Garage Eggnog

Ingredients

12 eggs
2 cups sugar
1/2 pint heavy cream

1 quart whole milk
1 quart bourbon
4 ounces Myer’s dark rum.
4-8 ounces of V.S.O.P. cognac. [Mr. Hunt was willing to pinch pennies on the bourbon, but was adamant that good cognac must be used]
Pinch of salt
Whole nutmeg

For bottling

Old liquor bottles, or 22-ounce bailtop bottles, available in brewing supply stores.

To serve

10 egg whites
1 1/2 cups heavy cream

INSTRUCTIONS

Separate egg yolks and whites. In a large mixing bowl, combine the yolks and sugar and whisk until well blended and creamy. [And no whining: George reports that whisking the yolks and sugar was much harder in Shanghai because the eggs are smaller.]

Add the cream, milk, bourbon, rum, Cognac and salt. Stir.

Bottle the eggnog, and wrap the bottle in aluminum foil, shiny side out. Tuck a fresh nut of nutmeg into the foil for grating later. Keep refrigerated for at least 3 weeks, or up to a year.

To serve

Whip 10 egg whites and 1 1/2 cups heavy cream to soft peaks, and fold them into the eggnog. Pour into a punchbowl. Serve in punch cups, garnished with freshly grated nutmeg.

–Recipe based on “Start the Egg Nog Now”, published in SFist, Nov 20 2007

Sources

Best Eggnog, DrewVogel.com, accessed 15 December 2018

Booker, Edna Lee, News is My Job: A Correspondent in War-Torn China, MacMillan, 1940

Chapman Luce, Patricia. Tea on the Great Wall: An American Girl in War-Torn China Earnshaw Books, 2015

North China Desk Hong List, 1929

Start the Egg Nog Now, SFist, Nov 20 2007, accessed 15 December 2018

Taste Test: Twelve Month Aged Eggnog, The Bitten Word, December 2010, accessed 15 December 2018

Cover photo: Chowhound.com