Egg cream
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An egg cream is a classic beverage consisting of chocolate syrup, milk, and seltzer (soda water), probably dating from the late 19th century, and is especially associated with Brooklyn, home of its alleged inventor, candy store owner Louis Auster.[1][2][3] It contains neither eggs nor cream.
The egg cream is almost exclusively a fountain drink; although there have been several attempts to bottle it, none has been wholly successful, as its fresh taste and characteristic head requires mixing of the ingredients just before drinking. The drink can be compared to a traditional ice cream soda, though it contains no ice cream.
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[edit] Name
The origin of the name "egg cream" is constantly debated. Stanley Auster, the grandson of the beverage's alleged inventor, has been quoted as saying that the origins of the name are lost in time.[4] One commonly accepted origin is that "Egg" is a corruption of the Yiddish word echt ("genuine" or "real") and this was a "good cream". It may also have been called an "Egg Cream" because in the late 1800s, there were already many chocolate fountain/dessert drinks using actual eggs (e.g. 'Egg Brin'), and Auster wanted to capitalize on the name.
Another explanation comes from reports that it grew out of a request for "chocolat et crème" from someone who had experienced a similar drink in Paris, which name morphed phonetically into the current version. Yet another plausible answer is that the first version did, in fact, use egg and cream, but due to the food limitations in WWII they were dropped from the recipe. One work from 1859, Domestic and rural affairs.: The family, farm and gardens, and the domestic animals, does include a recipe that consists of barely more than these two ingredients:
"Egg-Cream.-To the yolks of three eggs, and a dessertspoonful of good new milk or cream, add two drops of oil of cinnamon. This is a very good nourishing mixture. The oil of cinnamon is cordial and tonic, and the above has been recommended in lung complaints..."[5]
A similar recipe still was cited at the beginning of the 20th century, but had already dropped the cream:
"EGG CREAM.
The yolks of 6 eggs, 1/2 pint of water, juice of 1 lemon, 2 oz. of sifted sugar, a little cinnamon. Beat up all the ingredients, put the mixture into a saucepan over a sharp fire, and whisk it till quite frothy, taking care not to let it boil; fill into glasses and serve at once."[6]
Another from the same year (1915) uses both ingredients, though the intent here seems to be to reinforce whipped egg whites:
"3. EGG CREAM.
2 tablespoons fresh cream, the white of 1 egg.
Put the white of egg on to a plate and beat to a stiff froth with the flat of a knife. (A palette knife is the best.) Then beat the cream into it. This makes a nourishing dressing for either vegetable salad or fruitsalad. Especially suitable for invalids and persons of weak digestion."[7]
This supports another likely explanation for the name, which relates to the fact that the term "egg cream" was a very common term in the past (especially in the United States) for beaten egg whites, and the foam on the top of the beverage resembles these.
Sociologist Daniel Bell claims it was invented by his Uncle Hymie, who owned a candy store on Second Avenue in New York in the 1920s.
[edit] Variations
An alternative to the chocolate egg cream was the vanilla egg cream, offered for 5 cents in the 1950s and 1960s at classic Manhattan candy and newspaper shops in Yorkville and East Harlem. The vanilla egg cream replaces the chocolate syrup with U-Bet's Vanilla syrup. Another variation, the San Francisco egg cream, contains both chocolate syrup and hazelnut syrup.
[edit] Similar beverages
Other sweet soda- and milk-based beverages include the Vietnamese soda sữa hột gà, a beverage prepared with sweetened condensed milk, egg yolk, and soda water.
Milkis, a beverage made by the Korean Company, Lotte Chilsung, is also a sweet-soda-milk drink. It's a citrusy soda base mixed with a little milk. Milkis comes in a variety of flavors, including strawberry, orange, and muskmelon.
A Smith and Curran (or Smith and Kearns) is an alcoholic beverage developed in North Dakota during the mid-twentieth century oil boom made up of creme de cacao, cream and soda water.
[edit] Trivia
Lou Reed paid homage to the egg cream in "Egg Cream" the first track to his 1996 album Set the Twilight Reeling. In the song, Reed describes the ingredients, recipe, and sensation of drinking a classic New York egg cream, as well as the best location in the city to get one.
In Season 2 Episode 3 of the American television drama The West Wing, entitled The Midterms, President Bartlet describes the drink to his Communications Director Toby Ziegler. Toby then responds by saying the drink is called an egg cream, and that it was in fact invented in his hometown of Brooklyn.
[edit] Sources
- ^ BBC - h2g2 - The Egg Cream
- ^ NewYorkFirst.com:
- ^ Jeff's New York Egg Cream - BeveragesDirect.com Online Ordering
- ^ John F. Mariani (1999), Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, Lebhar-Friedman:New York
- ^ Elliot G Storke, Domestic and rural affairs.: The family, farm and gardens, and the domestic animals, Auburn, N. Y.,: The Auburn publishing company, 1859; page 102
- ^ Thomas R. Allinson, The Allinson Vegetarian Cookery Book, 1915
- ^ Florence Daniel, The Healthy Life Cook Book, 1915
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milkis
