General Harrison's Egg Nogg

Bird eggs are a common food and one of the most versatile ingredients used in cooking and have long been used in drinks. Usually used to add consistency and foam, egg whites and yolks are usually separated with "silver" indicating the white and "golden" the yolk. Modern chicken eggs are much larger, so use the smallest ones available.

Many 19th century recipes specifically called for white sugar, which is more refined and preferred over browner sugars. But modern white sugar is probably too refined, making raw cane sugar the best, easily available choice.

The new general availability of ice in the mid 1800s revolutionized bar-tending and drinking. Ice was delivered in blocks that then had to to be broken, crushed, picked and shaved for increasingly popular individual drinks (as opposed to large punches).

Common name in the U.S. and Canada for an unfiltered, unsweetened, non-alcoholic beverage produced from apples. This untreated cider is a seasonally produced beverage of limited shelf-life enjoyed in the autumn. In the rest of the world, "cider" is a fermented beverage sometimes called "hard cider".