Holiday Nog

Holiday Nog is a take on Egg Nog.

It is a commercial beverage product made by the Francovich family in Reno, Nevada based on a recipe from their homeland in Petrovac, Serbia.

It is made with cream, egg nog, spices, bourbon and gold rum, with no preservatives or artificial colouring.

It is light-coloured, with specks of spice in it. It is not thick, it is thin and light.

It is sold in a clear-glass bottle, and has a shelf life of 5 to 7 weeks, but it must be refrigerated at all times.

It sells for about 12$ US a bottle (2005 prices.)

There are also non-alcoholic homemade recipes for drinks called "Holiday Nog", that generally also leave eggs out of it. They rely instead on vanilla pudding mix as the thickener. Most versions tend also to be free of sugar (even calling for sugar-free pudding mixes) and low-fat, calling for skim milk.

But those versions appear downright luxurious compared to other homemade "Holiday Nog" recipes that are based on soy milk, rice syrup and mashed butternut squash.

History Notes for Holiday Nog

Eli Francovich arrived in Reno in 1859. He built a restaurant called "The Wine House." There, he started making Holiday Nog in 1867 for customers, and for gifts for the family to give away.

The Holiday Nog remained a tradition limited to this scope.

In 1998, the family decided to commercialize it, testing sales in three grocery stores in Reno. Then in 2000, they got a larger space to make it in and expanded operations.

Recipe Search