Egg-Hot
I found an interesting old cookbook called, A PLAIN COOKERY BOOK FOR THE WORKING CLASSES. It was written by Charles Elme Francatelli in 1861. He was ‘Maitre d’Hotel and Chief Cook to Her Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria,’ – pretty good credentials. A recipe that caught my attention was for Egg-Hot. It’s a sort of unusual beer cocktail. Here it is verbatim: 
I didn’t think this was something I could order at a local bar so I tried it myself. I tried it more than once. I made it with Brooklyn Lager and Sam Adams Boston Lager – both worked very well. I don’t think a beer like Corona or Bud would stand up to this recipe. I used a small sauce pan to heat the beer and a stoneware mug for the mixing. Adding ‘a drop of beer’ tempers the egg so it stays liquid and doesn’t scramble. I followed the instructions precisely and finished with a hearty mixture that was almost a meal. I think it would make a great winter drink comparable to Irish coffee. 
Found my way here while reading David Copperfield and wondering what egg-hot was. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Context:
She fainted when she saw me return, and made a little jug of egg-hot afterwards to console us while we talked it over.
Thanks for the Dickens’ quote. Egg-hot is really very good, especially on a cold day.
I also came here because of a literary reference that left me curious! In my case it was from this charming scene in Michael Innes’ golden age murder mystery, Death at the President’s Lodging:
The conversation was running on the proctorial activities of Gott. The walk from hall to common-room had revealed a raw, unpleasant night, cold and with a lurking vapour that caught at the throat. And to Appleby’s companions, comfortably smoking cigarettes in large leather chairs, with a leaping fire, more generous even than in the outer common-room, pleasantly warming their legs, the thought of their colleague pacing round the streets at the head of a little bevy of university police appeared to be particularly gratifying. “Think of it,” Lambrick, a large dreamy mathematician with a primitive sense of the humorous, was saying; “in he goes to the Case is Altered two men drinking egg-hot – men duly proctorized and out goes Gott into the night, thinking of egg-hot. He goes across the way to the Mucky Duck (good pub that) two men playing shove-halfpenny over a little rum shrub – proctorized and out comnes Gott thinking both of rum shrub and shove-halfpenny (capital hand he is, too). Over he goes to that flash place at the Berklay half a dozen smart men having a little quick champagne. Old Gott half hoping for a rough house. Your name and college, sir? all answer like lambs. Then out again to prowl around that college next my tailor’s (never can remember its name) until the Hammer and Sickle Club is out and safely tucked away in bed. What a life!”
David Cooperfield brought me here as well. Might have to try it.
It’s really good on a cold day.