Is Homemade Eggnog Safe? How to Fix a Raw-Egg Recipe

Homemade eggnog with cinnamon. Photo: Wheeler Cowperthwaite, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0; resized.

This is for the person who has been handed the eggnog this year. The recipe is on a card in a relative’s handwriting, or in a church cookbook from 1974, and it says something like: beat 6 eggs, add sugar, a quart of milk, a pint of cream and a cup of bourbon, chill overnight. Nothing in it is cooked. This year your sister is pregnant, there are kids who will want the “no booze” jug, and Grandpa is 88. You want to know whether the recipe is a problem, and if it is, how to change it without making a different drink.

It is fixable, and the fix takes about 15 minutes and a thermometer.

Why raw eggs are the problem

The FDA says even fresh eggs with clean, uncracked shells may contain Salmonella. You can’t see, smell or taste it. USDA’s egg guide names eggnog specifically, alongside Caesar salad, hollandaise, homemade mayonnaise and ice cream, as a food that is a risk when it is made from egg ingredients that are not thoroughly cooked.

Most healthy adults who get sick have diarrhea, fever, cramps and vomiting, starting 12 to 72 hours after, according to the FDA. The people USDA calls particularly vulnerable are infants, young children, older adults, pregnant women and anyone with a weakened immune system. At a family holiday party, that is usually several people at the table.

Doesn’t the bourbon kill it?

You will hear that it does. The evidence is thin. In 2008, Rockefeller University microbiologist Vincent Fischetti tested a raw-egg eggnog with about 20 percent rum and bourbon. When his lab added Salmonella, the alcohol did not kill all of it within 24 hours, and he said that to say authoritatively whether spiked eggnog is safe, the experiment would have to be repeated under realistic conditions. You may also read that letting spiked eggnog age for weeks sterilises it; that comes from the same lab’s informal follow-up described on the radio, not from any study the FDA or USDA relies on. Neither agency treats alcohol as a safety step. Their advice for homemade eggnog is the same with or without it: cooked base or pasteurized eggs.

And the guests most at risk, the kids and the pregnant guest, are the ones drinking the batch with no alcohol in it at all.

Fix 1: cook the egg base to 160°F

USDA says egg mixtures are safe once they reach 160°F, so eggnog can be made safely from a cooked egg-milk mixture, heated gently and checked with a food thermometer. This keeps the recipe’s amounts exactly as written; only the order changes. Here is how we’d convert a raw-egg recipe:

1. In a heavy saucepan, whisk the eggs (or yolks, if your recipe separates them) with all the sugar until smooth. Whisk in about half the milk. Leave the cream, the rest of the milk, the spirits and the nutmeg aside for now.
2. Heat on low, stirring constantly, scraping the bottom and corners with a spatula so no egg sets there. Don’t walk away and don’t turn the heat up to hurry it; high heat is what gives you sweet scrambled eggs.
3. Check with an instant-read thermometer in the middle of the pan, not touching the bottom. Take it off the heat as soon as it reads 160°F. In our experience that is 10 to 15 minutes for a 6-egg batch, and the mixture is only a little thicker than when you started; it won’t look like custard yet, and doesn’t need to.
4. Strain it through a fine sieve into a bowl, in case any egg cooked on the bottom.
5. Cool it fast. Set the bowl in a larger bowl of ice water and stir for a few minutes, then cover it and put it in the fridge. Don’t leave it on the counter to cool for hours.
6. When it is cold, stir in the rest of the milk, the cream, vanilla and nutmeg. Pour off the no-alcohol jug first, then add the bourbon, rum or brandy to the rest.

Keep the alcohol out of the pan: it belongs in the cold eggnog, where it stays in the drink instead of cooking off.

Fix 2: use pasteurized eggs

If you want the no-cook texture of the original, swap the eggs. The FDA’s holiday advice for homemade eggnog is to use pasteurized shell eggs, or pasteurized liquid or frozen eggs from a carton, or powdered egg whites. USDA says in-shell eggs that have been pasteurized may be used safely without cooking.

• Where to find them: USDA says pasteurized shell eggs are sold at some grocery stores, usually next to the regular eggs. The carton says “pasteurized”. If it doesn’t say so, assume they aren’t.
• Don’t try it at home. USDA says the equipment to pasteurize eggs in the shell isn’t available for home use, and it is very hard to do without cooking the egg. The “hold them in warm water” tricks online aren’t something USDA endorses.
• Plan ahead. Not every store carries pasteurized shell eggs, so check a week before the party, not the morning of.

The whipped egg-white topping

Many older recipes beat the egg whites separately and fold them in at the end, for a foamy top. Cooking the yolk base doesn’t help with those. USDA says dishes made with raw, beaten egg whites cannot be guaranteed to be safe, and suggests substituting pasteurized dried egg whites, whipped cream or a whipped topping. So either whip the whites from pasteurized eggs, or fold in softly whipped cream instead. Most people won’t notice the difference in a glass with nutmeg on top.

How long it keeps, and how long it can sit out

Those are USDA FSIS’s numbers. For a party on Saturday, that means making it Thursday or Friday, not the weekend before. Fixing it with a cooked base or pasteurized eggs deals with the eggs; it doesn’t make the eggnog keep longer. If the same party is a sit-down dinner built around a rib roast, how much prime rib per person is the other number to settle before the butcher trip. The nog still has to be made inside this 2-to-4-day window, whatever day the roast comes home.

On the table, eggnog is milk, cream and eggs, so treat it like any other perishable food: USDA’s rule for eggs is no more than 2 hours out of the refrigerator. The easy way is to keep the main jug in the fridge and refill a small pitcher, or set the punch bowl in a larger bowl of ice. Whatever has been out for two hours gets poured away, not back into the jug.

Saving the fixed recipe in RecipeScan

The point of fixing it once is that nobody has to work it out again next December. What RecipeScan can do: scan the handwritten card (Scan tab, then the Recipe tile) and it becomes an editable recipe in the cook’s own wording; it keeps the text, not a photo of the card, so keep the original somewhere safe. Card scanning is part of Premium; you can also type the recipe in, and the free plan holds up to three of your own recipes. Then either open the recipe’s … menu and choose Edit Recipe to rewrite the steps in the new order, or touch and hold a step and choose Add note to leave the 160°F instruction under it while the original wording stays as written. Notes are private to you.

For a big party, the ½× to 3× buttons scale every quantity at once. If 1½× leaves you with half an egg, beat one and measure out half.

What it can’t do: RecipeScan doesn’t check recipes for food safety. It won’t warn you that a recipe uses raw eggs, it doesn’t know about 160°F, and it doesn’t connect to a thermometer. Scaling changes amounts only, not cooking times. The fix is still yours to make; the app just makes sure it is written down where the recipe lives.

Frequently asked questions

Does the alcohol in eggnog kill salmonella?

You can't count on it. In a 2008 Rockefeller University test, the alcohol in a raw-egg eggnog did not kill all the added Salmonella within 24 hours, and the scientist said the question would need proper study. The FDA and USDA advice for homemade eggnog is to cook the egg mixture to 160°F or use pasteurized eggs, with or without alcohol.

Can pregnant women drink homemade eggnog?

Not if it is made with raw, unpasteurized eggs. USDA lists pregnant women among the people most vulnerable to Salmonella, along with infants, young children, older adults and people with weakened immune systems. Eggnog with a base cooked to 160°F, or made with pasteurized eggs, deals with the egg risk. A pregnant guest would also want a batch without alcohol.

How long does homemade eggnog last in the fridge?

USDA FSIS gives homemade eggnog 2 to 4 days in the refrigerator and says not to freeze it. Commercial eggnog gets 3 to 5 days in the refrigerator and 6 months in the freezer.

What temperature should eggnog be cooked to?

160°F, measured with a food thermometer. USDA says egg mixtures are safe once they reach 160°F, so eggnog can be made safely from a cooked egg-milk mixture heated gently and stirred constantly.

Can I fold raw whipped egg whites into eggnog?

USDA says dishes made with raw beaten egg whites cannot be guaranteed to be safe. Whip whites from pasteurized eggs instead, or fold in whipped cream, which USDA lists as a substitute.

Sources: USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, Shell Eggs from Farm to Table (last updated Nov 20, 2024: eggnog among foods risky when eggs aren’t thoroughly cooked; egg mixtures safe at 160°F, eggnog from a cooked egg-milk mixture, heat gently, use a thermometer; pasteurized in-shell eggs may be used without cooking, sold at some stores, can’t be pasteurized at home; raw beaten egg whites can’t be guaranteed safe, substitute pasteurized dried whites or whipped cream; who is most vulnerable; 2 hours out of the refrigerator; storage chart for homemade and commercial eggnog). U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Food Safety Tips for Healthy Holidays (content current as of Jan 31, 2025: pasteurized shell eggs, liquid or frozen pasteurized eggs or powdered whites for homemade eggnog) and What You Need to Know About Egg Safety (content current as of Mar 5, 2024: clean, uncracked eggs may contain Salmonella; symptoms 12 to 72 hours after infection). The Rockefeller University, Rockefeller microbiologist tests safety of spiked eggnog (Dec 19, 2008). The step-by-step conversion, the 10 to 15 minute estimate and the party tips are our own suggestions built on that guidance. Checked November 8, 2026.