The holidays are a time for tradition and breaking bread with family and friends. Of course, our favorite (real and hypothetical) bread comes from a Virginia bounty of local grains.
Tables across the commonwealth will soon be filled with roasted oysters and rockfish; baked ham in a brown sugar glaze and stuffed with orange slices and cloves; golden, roasted turkeys from the Shenandoah Valley served with all the trimmings; and baskets of soft rolls and cornbread.
It’s a traditional menu, indeed, and contains elements of a Christmas dinner in Coastal Virginia more than 400 years ago.
In 1608, Captain John Smith was on a trade expedition at Kecoughtan, a small village in present-day Hampton and wrote this first account of Christmas in the New World:
“The extreme wind, rain frost, and snow caused us to keep Christmas among the Savages, where we were never more merry, nor fed on more plenty of good oysters, fish, flesh, wild fowl and good bread, nor never had better fires in England than in the dry warm smoky houses of Kecoughtan.”
The Cocktails of Yore
Another tradition of the holidays, from November through the end of the year, are rich, decadent, boozy drinks, meant to warm the body and soul.
“Punch,” in particular, was plentiful – the mixing of distilled spirits with water, sugar, spice and citrus juice from the East Indies – and was found on most tables greeting guests.
“Punch was the gentleman’s drink,” says Colonial Williamsburg Historic Foodways Supervisor Frank Clark. “It was used as a social lubricant and to finalize business deals.”
Another holiday favorite was eggnog. According to Clark, the English have a long history of mixing alcohol and milk to create a variety of foodstuffs.
The toddy, hot toddy, or what was originally known as the “taddy,” was another go-to beverage reaching acclaim by at least the eighteenth century. A recipe in 1786 defined it as a “beverage made of alcoholic liquor with hot water, sugar and spices.” Over time, it’s become a chicken noodle soup of sorts, with a purported cure-all property, especially for colds and related ailments. One thing is certain: it warms from the inside out.
One that has a striking likeness to drinking a boozy sugar cookie: the Tom & Jerry. Its cake-like batter is combined with brandy and rum and topped with warm milk for a unique treat.
The drink remained popular into the early twentieth century, with interest waning and then picking back up for a while in the 1940s. Unlike eggnog, which can be served hot or cold, the Tom & Jerry is always served hot.
Want to make some of these Colonial-inspired Virginia cocktails yourself? Download a festive recipe card below for the details.
Made Good Punch: A Very Virginia Holiday Quaff
John Redwood operated perhaps the first tavern in Norfolk, establishing Redwood’s Ordinary in 1693. Redwood and his family had been involved in the sugar/molasses/rum trade in Barbados when he received a grant for Lot 47 in downtown Norfolk.
Among his first offerings was “Punch, if made good” at sixteen pence per quart, as regulated by the Norfolk County court. Punches, in general, were very popular in Colonial Virginia. They were boozy and ubiquitous in the colony.
Based on what we know from written accounts and historical records, Redwood would have crafted something like this:
- 2 cups spiced rum
- 1 cup fresh squeezed lime juice
- 1 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
- 1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
- 1 cup ginger simple syrup (see card)
- Sparkling water
- Freshly grated nutmeg
For the full recipe and instructions, click below.
George Washington’s Eggnog with Rum-Infused Whipped Cream
George Washington was America’s first president and owner of the country’s largest distillery at the time, and apparently he knew how to throw one heck of a party.
Case in point: his very boozy eggnog recipe. Rooted in England, eggnog was a signature holiday drink in Colonial America. Bottoms up, fellow patriots:
Take a quart cream, one quart milk, one dozen tablespoons sugar, one pint brandy, pint rye whiskey, pint Jamaica rum, pint sherry—mix liquor first, then separate yolks and whites of 12 eggs, add sugar to beaten yolks, mix well. Add milk and cream, slowly beating. Beat whites of eggs until stiff and fold slowly into mixture. Let set in cool place for several days. Taste frequently.
Here’s our slightly altered version. It’s perfect on National Eggnog Day, December 24, or really any time of the season.
- 2 whole eggs, plus 1 egg yolk
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- 2½ cups milk
- ½ cup heavy cream
- ½ cup Virginia spirits, such as spiced or white rum, bourbon or other whiskey or moonshine
- Rum-infused whipping cream (see card)
Get the full recipe by clicking the image below.
Buttery Hot Rum: A Hot Toddy Drink
Hot toddies are simply alcoholic beverages that are served warm, such as hot buttered rum. National Hot Toddy Day is celebrated on January 11, but these cocktails are wonderful all winter long.
A predecessor of hot buttered rum was documented as early as 1594, when Thomas Dawson described “Buttered Beere,” which included beer, eggs, sugar, nutmeg, clove, ginger and sweet butter bubbling away over a fire in a pewter pot.
As the New World was explored and rum became the fashionable drink of the seventeenth and much of the eighteenth centuries, a similar concoction was crafted using that distilled spirit instead. Here’s what you need:
- 2 tablespoons compound butter (see card)
- 2 ounces dark rum
- 8 ounces hot water
- Cinnamon stick
Click below for the full rundown.
Tom & Jerry
The Tom & Jerry, known for capturing the allure of a sugar cookie in drink form, may have originated as early as 1821.
The drink was so popular up through the twentieth century that it was even served in its own bowl, often emblazoned with the words “Tom & Jerry” on it, making it perhaps the first drink to have its own serving piece specifically crafted for it.
Unlike eggnog, which can be served hot or cold, the Tom & Jerry is always served hot. The ingredients don’t get much cozier than this…
- 2-3 ounces spiced rum
- 4 ounces hot milk
- 1-2 tablespoons of batter (see card)
- Cinnamon sticks
- Freshly grated nutmeg
The full recipe card is linked below.
Happy Holidays! Please drink responsibly.
Patrick Evans-Hylton is a Johnson & Wales-trained chef, food historian and award-winning food journalist covering tasty trends since 1995. He is the author of Virginia Distilled: Four Centuries of Drinking in the Old Dominion. Visit VirginiaEatsAndDrinks.com for more.
