Raise a Glass to Eggnog

In mid-November each year, eggnog hysteria sweeps NC State University in Raleigh.

The food sciences department starts getting questions about it in mid-September. On the day it arrives, lines at the dairy education and sales center on the school’s 329-acre farm rival ones for Santa at the mall, full of people bearing bags and coolers, ready for multiple purchases to last them through the holiday season.

Adding to the mystique is that at one time, you had to know the right people to get it.

“When we started making it in the early ’80s, we gave it away to faculty and staff. We didn’t sell it at first,” says Carl Hollifield, director of the Dairy Enterprise System in the department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences.

The creamy concoction was legendary around Raleigh back then, with desperate folks begging their university connections to snag them a quart. Today, eggnog lovers can easily purchase it at NC State’s Howling Cow Dairy Education Center and Creamery off Lake Wheeler Road in Raleigh, and at campus convenience stores — for as long as it holds out.

The 1,500 gallons the department produces from mid-November through mid-December goes fast. And there won’t be more.

“We’ve made more eggnog every year and it always sells out. We’re at the max we can easily make now,” Carl says.

"You’re probably just a hop, a skip and a jingle from a locally made eggnog.”

For many, the eggnog is a taste of the university’s roots, since farming and food education was a part of the land-grant university before it became a tech center. Pasteurized milk was produced on campus in 1918, and a dairy barn used to sit where Reynolds Coliseum is now. 

Students in the university’s food science department learn about all aspects of making dairy products, from the cow to the carton, including the popular Howling Cow ice cream, which is available in some supermarkets. There’s a seasonal eggnog ice cream, but it’s only sold at the Lake Wheeler Road creamery.

While students are learning, they can work at the sales outlets, Carl says. So, this is educational eggnog.

The eggnog from NC State is 5% fat, direct from the cows on its dairy farm. Carl purchases a commercial blend to add the eggnog flavor for ease of production.

“For lots of people, it’s a tradition, and it has a sense of place. And I believe we make high-quality eggnog,” Carl says. “You can see the cows being milked and know where it came from.”

Around the state, local dairies satisfy folks’ love of eggnog during the holiday season with their own versions, which, like NC State’s, vanish in the blink of Rudolph’s eye. So it looks like no matter what the health-conscious say, a lot of people still love eggnog for the holidays.

As to why?

“I ain’t quite figured out that one yet,” says Randy Lewis, owner of Ran-Lew Dairy in Alamance County. “But for country folks who like it, I guess it’s a good excuse to drink more white liquor, which sure is good in it.”

Homemade Holiday Goodness

Can’t get to a creamery that serves up eggnog? Cook up your own! Try this recipe from the American Egg Board.

Homemade Holiday Goodness