I was reading a section of Quicksilver a few days ago, and the description of a peculiar beverage caught my eye. The protagonist sits down to drink with some famous historical figure and they order two drinks. The barkeep puts some ale, an egg, possibly some hard liquor, and some other bizarre ingredients into a pair of mugs and then stirs each with the end of a hot poker from the fireplace. I could quote the passage if I had the text with me, but I’m hoping the above snippet will be enough to identify the tradition.
For those unfamiliar, the time period is the 18th century and the location is either colonial America or England.