Six years ago, John and Marie Miller stood in their kitchen over a steaming pot of eggnog. Neither of them liked eggnog – or at least the stuff they could buy in the stores – but the couple had been determined to create one that could convert even the most dubious.
As the fifth-generation owners of Miller’s Dairy, an 800-acre dairy and crop operation outside the village of Creemore, Ont., they had been fielding calls from customers asking for the creamy concoction for years.
“We were always getting bombarded with requests,” Ms. Miller said. “We just had to make it.”
John Miller was an eggnog skeptic at first, but his dairy was set on making a recipe that could win converts.
It took a good deal of recipe experimentation, but the Millers say they perfected an eggnog that appeals even to those who don’t typically like it. Not too spicy and made with extra-rich milk from their Jersey cows, their eggnog has become a hit: They’re on track to sell 33,000 litres across southern Ontario this year after launching the product in 2017, when they sold 14,000 litres.
Now, they’re being asked to push production back to encompass Canadian Thanksgiving, and have even made the eggnog flavour available year round as an ice cream. “It’s the richness, and it’s the texture. If it’s going to be a treat, it had better be good,” Mr. Miller said.
The Millers’ eggnog production starts in late September, when the farm stops making its strawberry and coffee-flavoured milk products. The main component of the eggnog – the dairy – comes from the farm’s 130 Jersey cows. Mr. Miller says working with the herd is his favourite part of the production process. “They’re inquisitive and very gentle. They like to be in your face all the time,” Mr. Miller said.
The milk from Jersey cows is naturally about 20 per cent higher in calcium and protein than the milk from Holstein cows – which are the majority of North American dairy cows – making it a better base for a creamy drink, he said.
Matthew Dodge measures out sugar to be added to the raw milk.
From the milking parlour, the raw milk is transferred through a 50-foot underground pipe network to the processing plant at the centre of the farm, and collected in tankards.
Farm staff then add in a concentrated caramel-coloured eggnog base, made from eggs, sugar and spices, which they get from a supplier. They add more sugar and cream, and stabilizer to ensure the ingredients stay suspended in the milk. An agitator keeps everything moving and prevents sugar from pooling at the bottom.
At this point, the air in the production room is fragrant with nutmeg. “It makes people want to get some spiced rum,” Mr. Miller said.
After 10 minutes of mixing, employees then transfer the eggnog mixture to a second vat, where it is pasteurized to make it safe to drink, and homogenized to ensure the milk ingredients don’t separate later.
In another room, staff members load reusable glass bottles into the farm’s sanitizer. The bottles are flipped and washed, then move on a conveyor belt through a hole in the wall into the filling room.
There they enter a serpentine maze of gleaming aluminum. Within a few minutes, the bottles are filled with eggnog, capped, stamped and checked over by a team member.
Craig Hanish loads bottled eggnog into a cooler.
The farm uses the deposit and return bottle system to keep the production environmentally friendly, and they distribute only to the area around Creemore in southern Ontario to save on fuel and time, Ms. Miller said. Currently, they do not sell to Toronto.
Timing is important: Eggnog production needs to be wrapped a few days before the end of the year, when customers start to watch their waistlines after indulging during the holidays. “We do not want to have any eggnog in possession after New Year’s, because no one will buy it then,” Mr. Miller said. The first year they made eggnog, they had to throw out nearly 1,000 litres of unsold product.
For those who have extra eggnog, he recommends adding it to pancakes or using it to make French toast. But in the Miller household, there’s rarely any left by the end of the year. Despite their early doubts, the couple has been converted. “I have a little bit of eggnog every night, because I absolutely love it,” Mr. Miller said.
Video: An inside look at eggnog making
John and Marie Miller were eggnog skeptics at first, but now their family dairy makes a version they say will win converts. The Globe went to their operation in regional Ontario to follow the nog’s journey.
The Globe and Mail