North German Rum Drink: Hoppelpoppel

The name of this North German and Frisian drink is the same as a famous dish from Berlin, but the two have absolutely nothing in common, as the Berlin dish is typically potatoes fried with bacon or ham, onions and eggs (the name is also written as two words by some, "Hoppel Poppel"). Rum became a fairly popular alcoholic beverage in Germany, as rum was brought into north German ports from the Caribbean. This is an easy drink to make, but it does require you to heat the mixture, and to be attentive, as it has raw egg. It is actually like making custard, but it shouldn't be allowed to thicken too much. You can enjoy this while it is still warm or you can put the glasses into the freezer for a little while before filling them. The whipped cream will help to cool the prepared mixture enough so as not to break the chilled glasses, but to be safe, let the mixture sit for a couple of minutes before dispensing it to the glasses. Don't blame me if you find yourself making this over and over.

Ingredients for 4 servings:

5 egg yolks
3 cups milk
1/3 to 1/2 cup sugar (depending upon how sweet you want it)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup Puerto Rican or other Caribbean rum
8 ounces heavy cream, whipped

Get a bowl that will fit over a pan of hot water. The bowl should not touch the hot water. Heat some water in the pan so that it barely simmers. Put the bowl over the pan and add the eggs and sugar; mix well and continue to stir until the egg mix begins to tighten up. Gradually whisk in the milk (whisk constantly to prevent the eggs from actually coming out like scrambled eggs, and don't be afraid to lift the bowel off of the pan, if need be), the vanilla and the nutmeg. Continue to gently whisk as the mixture heats and thickens. Take care not to let the mixture boil, and also, take care not to let it thicken to pudding status (custard), but you can add a little more milk to thin it out, if needed. When the mixture has heated and thickened somewhat, remove it from the heat and gradually fold in all but a couple of tablespoons of the whipped cream. Fill the glasses and top each drink with a little of the remaining whipped cream.   

WORD HISTORY:
Duck (#2)-This is not the word for the bird, but rather a word meaning "sailcloth, sackcloth." It goes back to Indo European "dwok," which meant, "cloth, fabric." This gave West Germanic "dokaz" (see the other Germanic languages below), with the same meaning. I could not find a form in Old English, which seems odd, in that the other West  Germanic languages had forms, but it is possible that the West Germanic form didn't spread to Anglo-Saxon before it left the Continent and became established in Briton as English. It's always possible, too, that an Old English form went unrecorded and that it then died out. Anyway, Dutch had "doec" (now spelled, "doek"), and this was borrowed by English circa 1600. The other Germanic languages have: German "Tuch" (cloth, fabric, towel, neckerchief), Low German Saxon "Dook" (cloth, fabric, woven material), Dutch "doek" (cloth, rag, canvas, sail), some Frisian dialect has "douk" (cloth) and West Frisian has "doek," but that "might be" from Dutch, although Frisian once had "dok." It "seems" the North Germanic languages, initially represented by Old Norse, borrowed a form of the word from Low German or German, as "dukr," meaning, "cloth, curtain, veil, sail," which was passed down to Icelandic as "dúkur," meaning, "fabric, cloth," and to Swedish as "duker," but it "seems" Swedish later borrowed from Low German a form rendered as "duk" (cloth, then tablecloth). and perhaps the same is true of Danish "dug" (canvas, cloth, later tablecloth and cloth material for a banner), as well as Norwegian "duk" (cloth, canvas, later tablecloth and cloth used in religious ceremony).