Cooking Through HSP: Egg Nog

By: Madison Jordan

Welcome to Cooking Through HSP! To many, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania is best known for its Revolutionary War-era documents and extensive genealogy collection. However, the HSP archives hold far more information in our collections. This four-part series will focus on American food through history as found in HSP’s collections. If you missed it, check out my post on tapioca pudding.

I was interested in doing this project because I have a passion for food history. I love looking at old cookbooks and the way that everyday people have worked, ate, and just lived their everyday lives throughout history. It’s an interest that I’ve had for a long time, and I’ve been incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to dive deeper into this subject and get so close to the materials while completing this project.

Throughout this project, I will be looking at American culture through food. Food history is an aspect of history that transcends time and locations. Studying one war, for example, is through one time period. Food history, on the other hand, has always happened and will always continue to happen. The way that people eat reflects the way that they live, whether it’s through the time they have to cook or the ingredients they have access to, and this series seeks to reflect that within HSP’s shelves. 

The subject of this post is the Twentieth Century Club War Time Cook Book, published in 1918 by the Twentieth Century Club of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh’s Twentieth Century Club was founded in 1894 by seven Pittsburgh women, stating that their purpose was to create “an organized center for women's work, thought and action” and foster “members’ interests, promoting science, literature, and the arts”, while being “a quiet meeting place for its members”. There are other branches of the Twentieth Century Club across the country, such as in Little Rock or Buffalo, with buildings that are part of the National Historic Register. Twentieth Century Clubs were founded by women so that women had their own equivalent to men’s social clubs of the era-- they were spaces for women to relax and to find a community. They discussed politics, women’s rights, and social events, among many other things. The club also had a “Cook Book Committee”, who wrote not only this book, but many others over the years for the group. Each recipe is credited, presumably to the woman who invented it, or at least who submitted it to be published in the book.

In 2020, the Twentieth Century Club sold their historic building, which is part of the Schenley Farms Historic District, to the University of Pittsburgh. From my research, it is unclear whether Pittsburgh’s Twentieth Century Club is still running. Their social media accounts have not been active since 2024, and their website no longer exists. 

The War Time Cook Book is a detailed example of how everyday life and cooking was affected by the war and rationing, as well as demonstrating how women’s roles in society were viewed at the time. As the First World War began, women were an integral part of the war effort. As this article by the National Park Service states, “Five million men were mobilized for service in the Great War. Over nine million women mobilized themselves.” Women were volunteering with the Red Cross, librarians (a predominantly female career) were supplying books and periodicals to  service members, and women were joining the military, working for the U.S. Army Signal Corps. and working in all non-combat duty roles of the Navy. However, many women were still expected to remain in the household. In an opening letter in the Twentieth Century Club War Time Cook Book, Mrs. Alexander J. Barron, the Director of Food Conservation for Allegheny Co. Women’s Committee, Council of National Defense, wrote that “there is no doubt that a woman’s war work … should commence in the home”. The war effort from the home was an everyday consideration of the items people used. “There is no more important war activity in which women may engage than the careful conservation of our food supply”, wrote Howard Heinz, the Federal Food Administrator of Pennsylvania. 

The Twentieth Century Club War Time Cook Book highlights the way that women were doing this by showing how the most important part of these recipes, and what makes them distinct from pre- or post-war cookbooks, was the substitutions used for important ingredients-- specifically wheat, butter or lard, sugar, beef, pork, and mutton. They suggest using molasses or corn syrup instead of sugar, for example, and poultry and fish instead of beef or pork. Within stores, there was government regulation on how much of these items could be purchased. Additionally, social pressure fell on home cooks to ration as much as possible and contribute to the war effort in every way that they can. Even the sale of the Twentieth Century Club War Time Cook Book was for the war effort, stating that “The net proceeds from the sale of this book are for the war work of the club”, and asking readers to “not lend it, but ask your friends to buy one”. Reading this book gives you much more of a connection to the subject, and a more detailed understanding of the ways rationing affected the everyday household during the time period.

The recipe that I chose to make was for Egg Nog, which I found interesting because I love store bought egg nog around the holidays, but I’ve never tried the traditional version made with a raw egg (consume at your own risk, but I’ll try anything once!). Egg nog was already considered to be a holiday drink over one hundred years ago, but this recipe was still included in a cookbook published in April. 

Twentieth Century Club of Pittsburgh, Twentieth Century Club War Time Cook Book, 1918. TX 652 .C37 no. 126. Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

This recipe is credited to Miss Rachel C. Aiken, a member of the Twentieth Century Club of Pittsburgh at the time. One notable aspect of this recipe is although the instructions say “add sugar”, the ingredients don’t include it. One similar recipe found here, from Household Arts for Home and School, published in 1920, called for 1 teaspoon of sugar, so I used a similar amount for my recipe. The lack of a measurement for sugar may have been because sugar was one main item being rationed, so the implication could be to use as little sugar as possible in this recipe. 

left, ingredients whisked together; right, final drink with nutmeg on top

It was interesting compared to modern day egg nog that you can buy in grocery stores around the holidays. That version of egg nog contains cream, so it’s heavier, as well as significantly sweeter. This version only has milk. I did only have 1% milk, and whole milk was more likely to be found in stores at the time-- the added fat from whole milk certainly would have been welcome! The flavor, however, was super similar to the modern day egg nogs that I have tried. 

It was interesting to make while thinking about how people were making it. To them, it was a small treat during a war time, while worrying about their loved ones that were drafted or deployed. I’m very grateful to not be in a situation where I have to worry about my loved ones in that way, and also to not have to use as little sugar as I can or have to substitute butter in my baked goods.