Tenuous Links Drinks - 3 French Hens

On the Third Day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Three French Hens
Two Turtle Doves 
And a Partridge in a Pear Tree

Hmm, so what to have on day 3 of our Christmas Drinks countdown? As soon as I saw this one I thought of some kind of flip, made with a whole egg, to tie in nicely with the hen part of the equation. Flips are basically made from any fortified wine or liquor, shaken with a whole egg and sweetened with sugar. Given that there are some cracking French spirits around out there, this seemed like the perfect solution!

Diffords Guide (always a good source of cocktail inspiration) has a good generic recipe that can be used with your base spirit of choice;
2 shots Brandy/Whisk(e)y/Rum/etc
1 shot Sugar Syrup
1 fresh egg (yolk and white)
1/2 shot Unsweetened Single Cream

Shake all ingredients over ice and fine strain into a martini glass.

Alternatively, serve hot in a toddy glass - just heat the ingredients in a microwave or in a pan over the stove. Although this appeals to me less, this is maybe the more ‘authentic’ version as the original flips, way back in the late 1600s, consisted of a tankard of ale to which a mixture of sugar, eggs and spices was added before being heated with a red-hot iron poker from the fire. I wouldn't recommend trying that one at home.

The subject being 3 French Hens, I would suggest trying cognac, armagnac or maybe calvados as the base spirit. Or why not all 3 to see which works best? It is Christmas after all!

While I was quite pleased with today’s link, it doesn’t seem very tenuous, so in the spirit of tenuous links (and for those that aren't too keen on the idea of raw egg in their cocktail);

Hen in French is poule, so why not pull yourself a pint? I reckon it has to be a pint (or three) of Old Speckled Hen but of course the choice is yours!