Tom and Jerry
The Tom and Jerry is eggnog rebuilt for a cold night: one egg separated and beaten into a batter, sweetened, spooned into a warm mug with cognac and dark rum, then raised into a foam under hot milk and grated nutmeg. The name is usually traced to Pierce Egan, the London journalist whose 1821 book Life in London followed Jerry Hawthorn and Corinthian Tom through the capital’s taverns; the drink, the story goes, was invented to promote it. Jerry Thomas printed the recipe in 1862 and claimed the invention for himself, but the chronology is against him: the drink was in print before he could walk. What is certain is that he made it famous, and that America adopted it hard enough that parts of the Midwest still treat the batter as a December staple, sold by the tub. The batter is the whole trick. Beaten white folded through ribboned yolk makes a foam sturdy enough to survive hot milk, so the drink arrives as a warm custard cloud rather than a milk punch. Two spirits share the base: cognac for polish, dark rum for depth.
Glassware: Irish Coffee Mug
Garnish: Freshly Grated Nutmeg Grated over the foam at the last moment
Ingredients
1, separated
The batter: white to soft peaks, yolk to ribbon, folded back together with the air kept in.
15ml
Sweetens the yolk and steadies the foam, which is most of what it does here. Fifteen millilitres is enough for one mug, since the milk brings its own faint sweetness and the drink is not meant to be a dessert.
30ml
Half the base, bringing orchard polish and keeping the drink from turning heavy under the egg and milk. VS or VSOP is plenty; the milk flattens anything more expensive than that.
30ml
The other half, bringing molasses depth that stays audible through milk and egg where a lighter rum would vanish. Wisconsin argues brandy against rum every December, and the even split is the version that tastes complete.
Hot, to top
Poured slowly and steaming, never boiled: it lifts the batter into the drink’s custard cloud.
Instructions
Warm a mug with hot water and empty it.
Separate the egg. Beat the white to soft peaks; whisk the yolk with the simple syrup until smooth and pale.
Fold the white into the yolk to make a light batter.
Spoon the batter into the warmed mug and add the cognac and dark rum.
Top with hot milk, poured slowly, stirring gently to lift the batter into a foam.
Grate nutmeg over the top.
Expert Tip
Warm the mug before the batter goes in. Cold ceramic seizes the foam on contact and the foam is the drink, so run hot water into the mug while you separate the egg and tip it out at the last moment. The batter is a timing problem more than a technique problem. Beaten white folded through ribboned yolk holds its air for a few hours in the fridge and slackens after that, so beat it shortly before people arrive rather than the night before, and give it a quick whisk if it has gone loose. Milk goes in hot and never boiled. Boiling scalds the egg and the drink arrives grainy instead of smooth, so heat it to steaming, pour it slowly down the side of the mug, and stir gently as the foam rises.
Flavour Profile
The Origin
The usual story credits Pierce Egan, the London sporting journalist whose 1821 bestseller Life in London followed Corinthian Tom and Jerry Hawthorn through the capital’s taverns and gin shops. Egan, the telling goes, added brandy to eggnog and named the result after his heroes to keep the book in the public eye. The tale is repeated everywhere and verified nowhere, but the chronology fits: the drink was circulating within a few years of the book, on both sides of the Atlantic. Forty years later Jerry Thomas printed the recipe in How to Mix Drinks, his 1862 bartender’s manual, and claimed he had invented it himself. Historians side with Egan, since the drink was in print while Thomas was still a boy. What Thomas genuinely did was make it famous, installing the Tom and Jerry as a fixture of the American winter bar for the rest of the century.
The Batter
The batter is what separates this from eggnog. Separate the egg cleanly. The white is beaten to soft peaks, the yolk whisked with the sugar until smooth and pale, and the two folded back together into a loose, airy cream. Folded rather than stirred: the point is to keep the air in, because that trapped foam is what survives the hot milk and gives the finished drink its cloud of a texture. A batter that sits too long deflates, so build the drink while it still holds a peak.
The Two Spirits
Splitting the base between cognac and dark rum settles the drink’s oldest argument by compromise. Early printings called for brandy; the rum arrived with the American taverns that adopted it, and Thomas himself hedged with both. Each does distinct work at thirty millilitres: the cognac brings orchard polish and keeps the drink from turning heavy, the dark rum brings molasses depth that stands up through milk and egg. All brandy makes it politer, all rum makes it darker; the even split is the version that tastes complete.
The Midwest Chapter
The Tom and Jerry faded from most bar books after Prohibition, but it never left the upper Midwest. In Wisconsin and Minnesota it remains a December institution: taverns keep bowls of batter behind the bar, supermarkets sell it by the tub, and families argue brandy against rum with real feeling. The drink survives there for the same reason it was invented, a cold climate and a long winter, and the region’s German and Scandinavian punch traditions gave it a natural home.
How to Serve It
Warm the mug first with hot water and empty it; batter spooned into cold ceramic seizes and sinks. Batter, then spirits, then hot milk poured slowly while you stir gently to lift the foam, and nutmeg grated over the top at the last moment. Jerry Thomas topped his with hot water, and purists can follow him for a lighter drink, but hot milk is the house serve: rounder, closer to custard, better against a dark evening. One egg makes one mug and the recipe scales honestly, so a bowl of batter beaten before guests arrive turns the drink into a December production line.
The Spirit
CognacGrape brandy from the Cognac region of western France, twice distilled in copper pot stills and aged in French oak. Ugni Blanc does nearly all the work, a thin acidic wine that makes poor drinking and excellent spirit, and the age classifications on the label are legally defined minimums.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who invented the Tom and Jerry?
The usual credit goes to Pierce Egan, promoting his 1821 book Life in London. Jerry Thomas later claimed it, but the drink was in print while he was still a child; what he did was make it famous.
Can I make the batter ahead for a party?
Yes: beat it shortly before guests arrive and keep it cold. It holds for a few hours before it starts to deflate; a quick whisk rebuilds the foam if it slackens. One egg per mug, so scale to the guest list.
Should a Tom and Jerry be topped with milk or water?
Jerry Thomas used hot water, and it gives a lighter drink. Hot milk is the house serve: rounder and closer to custard. Either way, pour slowly and stir gently to lift the batter into foam.
Master the Techniques
You Might Also Like
Eggnog
Eggnog is the milk punch that armoured up for winter: whole eggs whisked through milk, cream and sugar over a brandy-and-rum floor, the medieval posset’s descendant that colonial America adopted and December has never released. The carton version is a different and lesser species. The build works yolk and white in concert. Yolks give the custard richness, whisked with the sugar first as a custard would be; whites are optionally whipped and folded for the cloud, or simply shaken through for the simpler reading. The two-spirit floor is the colonial standard, with brandy’s fruit and rum’s molasses sharing the warmth between them, and nutmeg grated over the top as it is over the whole dairy family. Made by the glass it is a revelation to anyone whose only reference is a carton. Aged by the bottle, spending weeks maturing in the fridge before it is opened, it is the holiday’s deepest and least known secret.
Hot Buttered Rum
Hot Buttered Rum is one of the oldest documented American drinks, appearing in colonial records from the seventeenth century as a winter drink built around the rum arriving in New England ports from the Caribbean trade. It predates the cocktail as a formal category by more than a century, and it sits alongside the toddy and the flip as evidence that spirit, sweetness and warmth in one vessel is as old as distillation. The batter is what separates a properly made one from a glass of rum with butter melted into it. Softened butter, brown sugar, warm spices and a little vanilla, prepared in advance and stored cold, produce a richness and an integrated spice that adding each element separately cannot reach, and the butter emulsifies into the liquid as the batter dissolves. This is a drink for deep winter and genuine cold. It does not pretend to be refreshing or complex. It is warm, rich, direct and entirely honest about what it is.
Brandy Milk Punch
The Brandy Milk Punch is New Orleans keeping the eighteenth century's breakfast habit: brandy shaken cold through sweetened vanilla milk and crested with nutmeg. Milk punch travelled the colonial world as a drink of hospitality and, in most places, quietly died. New Orleans never stopped pouring it, and the grand hotels still serve it at brunch beside the Ramos Gin Fizz as the morning's other dairy answer. The build is lighter than the name suggests. Whole milk rather than cream is the whole argument: it carries the brandy and the vanilla without turning the glass into dessert, which is what makes a second one reasonable before noon. Fifteen millilitres of simple syrup stands in for the powdered sugar of the older specs, and the vanilla arrives in drops rather than pours. What comes out is liquid comfort with a spirit floor under it: the eggnog's lighter, year-round sibling, and the drink that settles a brunch argument the way an Irish Coffee settles a winter one.
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits
Enjoyed This Recipe?
Explore our full collection of cocktails and discover your next favorite
Browse All Cocktails