Alcohol-Free Tom and Jerry, the Batter in Hot Milk
Reader ratingsThe spiced egg batter of the 1862 Tom and Jerry, beaten light and stirred into milk just off the boil, with nutmeg on top: the hot Christmas drink without the brandy.
- Recipe makes
- About 1 1/2 cups batter, enough for about 10 mugs
- Prep
- Cook
- Total
The batter takes about 10 minutes to whisk; heat the milk while you finish it.
Alcohol-free Tom and Jerry in a white china mug, with a small milk pan and a whole nutmeg.
The story behind the recipe
This is the Tom and Jerry with the spirit taken out: the same light, spiced egg batter, stirred into milk just off the boil. Jerry Thomas’s 1862 recipe makes the batter from eggs, sugar, cinnamon, cloves and allspice, with a dash of Jamaica rum, and serves a spoonful of it with a wine-glass of brandy and boiling water. By 1895 the Bartenders’ Association of New York City printed its own version in its handbook, and its serving rule was one tablespoon of batter and a wine-glass of brandy, then “Fill with boiling milk or water.”
Milk in place of brandy
That choice of milk is what this version keeps. Without the brandy, hot milk carries the drink: the batter should melt into it and rise as a pale foam. The 1895 handbook also gives a Cold Tom and Jerry, prepared “as hot, only using cold water or milk,” so the drink was already being made in more than one way.
Leaving out the brandy, and the teaspoon of rum in the batter, is our change. We found no period bar that sold the drink without spirits, so treat this as our version of theirs. For the 1862 drink with brandy and boiling water, see Tom and Jerry, the 1862 Egg-Batter Hot Drink.
Read more about this recipe
Making it today
Beat the whites stiff and the yolks thin, as Thomas did, and add sugar until the batter is light and holds a soft shape. Two tablespoons of batter to half a cup of milk should give a sweet, foamy mug; use one for a lighter drink. Pasteurized eggs are safest, since the batter is only warmed by the milk.
The drink’s older cousin, eggnog, is told in How Was Eggnog First Made?.
How to Serve Tom and Jerry.
(Use small bar glass.)
1 tablespoonful of the mixture, 1 wine glass of brandy. Fill with boiling milk or water.
Mix fine nutmeg on top.
The batter follows Jerry Thomas’s “Tom and Jerry,” How to Mix Drinks (1862), pp. 69–70: the whites beaten “to a stiff froth,” the yolks “until they are as thin as water,” then spice, rum and sugar “until the mixture attains the consistence of a light batter.”
Recipe makes: About 1 1/2 cups batter, enough for about 10 mugs
Ingredients
For About 1 1/2 cups batter, enough for about 10 mugs. Quantities are shown as written.
Quantities as written here, for About 1 1/2 cups batter, enough for about 10 mugs.
Batter
- Pasteurized eggs2
- Superfine sugar3/4 cup
- Ground cinnamon1/4 tsp
- Ground cloves1 pinch
- Ground allspice1 pinch
For each mug
- Batter2 tbsp
- Whole milk1/2 cup
- Whole nutmeg, for grating
Measurement notes
Ingredients as written here
- 2 pasteurized eggs
- 3/4 cup superfine sugar
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 pinch ground cloves
- 1 pinch ground allspice
- 2 tbsp batter
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- Whole nutmeg, for grating
Equipment
2 wide bowls or basins
Whisk
Small saucepan
Mugs
Nutmeg grater
Instructions
Separate the pasteurized eggs. Whisk the whites until they hold stiff peaks.
In a second bowl, whisk the yolks until they are thin and pale.
Fold the yolks into the whites, then whisk in the ground cinnamon, ground cloves and ground allspice.
Add the superfine sugar a few spoonfuls at a time, whisking after each, until the batter is light and holds a soft shape.
For each mug, heat the whole milk in a small saucepan until it just comes to the boil.
Put the batter in a warmed mug and pour in the hot milk slowly, stirring all the time so the batter dissolves into a foam.
Grate a little nutmeg over the top and serve at once.
Nutrition
135calories per serving
- Recipe makes
- About 1 1/2 cups batter, enough for about 10 mugs
- Servings
- 10
Roughly estimated from USDA FoodData Central values for whole milk, granulated sugar and whole egg, for one mug with 2 tablespoons of batter and 1/2 cup of milk.
Recipe notes
When adjusting quantities
The batter is a sixth of Thomas’s twelve-egg bowl. The mug ingredients are for one drink.
Notes
Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the batch.
Changes from the sources: the brandy and the rum in the batter are left out. The batter is a sixth of Thomas’s twelve eggs with much less sugar than his five pounds, which would be nearly 2 cups for two eggs. Two tablespoons of batter to each mug, half a cup of milk and taking the milk off as it boils are ours; the handbook uses one tablespoon in a small bar glass and says only “boiling milk.” Pasteurized eggs and superfine sugar are ours too.
The handbook’s own batter is stiffer than Thomas’s and uses both Jamaica and St. Croix (Santa Cruz) rum; we follow Thomas’s lighter batter.
For a cold Tom and Jerry, as the 1895 handbook allows, whisk the batter into cold milk and drink it at once.
Storage
Keep the batter covered in the fridge and use it the same day. Whisk it again before serving.
Scaling changes the ingredients only; glassware, ice and timings need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.
Sources and attribution
A modern alcohol-free adaptation of “Tom and Jerry” in Jerry Thomas, How to Mix Drinks (New York: Dick & Fitzgerald, 1862), No. 174, pp. 69–70, served with milk as in “How to Serve Tom and Jerry”, Bartenders’ Association of New York City, Official Hand-Book and Guide (New York, 1895), p. 46
Recipe details
- Drink
- Alcohol-free
- Drink family
- Hot Drinks
- Region
- American
- Era
- 19th century
- Source decade
- 1890s
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- Occasion
- Christmas
- Season
- Winter