Egg cream
Encyclopedia
Chocolate syrup
Chocolate syrup is a chocolate flavored condiment. It is often used as a topping for various desserts, such as ice cream or mixed with milk to make chocolate milk.-Basic ingredients:...
, milk
Milk
Milk is a white liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest other types of food. Early-lactation milk contains colostrum, which carries the mother's antibodies to the baby and can reduce the risk of many...
, and soda water, probably dating from the late 19th century, and is especially associated with Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, home of its alleged inventor, candy store owner Louis Auster. It contains neither eggs
Egg (food)
Eggs are laid by females of many different species, including birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, and have probably been eaten by mankind for millennia. Bird and reptile eggs consist of a protective eggshell, albumen , and vitellus , contained within various thin membranes...
, cream
Cream
Cream is a dairy product that is composed of the higher-butterfat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, over time, the lighter fat rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream this process is accelerated by using centrifuges called "separators"...
, nor ice cream
Ice cream
Ice cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners...
.
The egg cream is almost exclusively a fountain
Soda fountain
A soda fountain is a device that dispenses carbonated drinks. They can be found in restaurants, concession stands and other locations such as convenience stores...
drink. Although there have been several attempts to bottle it, none has been wholly successful, as its fresh taste and characteristic head
Beer head
Beer head is the frothy foam on top of liquid beer after it is poured in a glass. It is produced by bubbles of carbon dioxide rising to the surface....
require mixing of the ingredients just before drinking.
Origins
The origin of the name "egg cream" is constantly debated. One theory was said that they used grade "A" milk calling it a chocolate A cream thus sounding like 'egg' cream. 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. One commonly accepted origin is that "Egg" is a corruption of the German (also found in 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 19th century, there were already many chocolate fountain/dessert drinks using actual eggs (e.g. 'Egg Brin'), and Auster wanted to capitalize on the name.Author of the book Fix the Pumps, historical look at soda fountains, Darcy S. O'Neil claims that the "New York Egg Cream" is a variation of the original milkshake
Milkshake
A milkshake is a sweet, cold beverage which is made from milk, ice cream or iced milk, and flavorings or sweeteners such as fruit syrup or chocolate sauce....
served at soda fountains throughout America in the late 19th century.
Around 1885 the milkshake became a popular item at soda fountains. Unlike today's thick, ice cream like consistency, the original milkshakes were made with sweet cream (sometimes frozen as "ice cream"), a whole egg, flavored syrup and soda water. The egg, cream and syrup were shaken in a cocktail shaker until light and frothy, then poured into a glass where the soda water was added.
The Egg Cream was most likely a version created to keep the price low, as most soda fountain items were sold for 5 cents. As eggs and cream became more expensive they would be removed (eggs) or replaced (cream) with milk leading to what we now know as a New York Egg Cream.
Sociologist Daniel Bell
Daniel Bell
Daniel Bell was an American sociologist, writer, editor, and professor emeritus at Harvard University, best known for his seminal contributions to the study of post-industrialism...
claims it was invented by his Uncle Hymie, who owned a candy store on Second Avenue in New York in the 1920s.
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..."
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."
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."
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.
Recipe
Pour one part very cold whole milk, optionally froth with handheld Aerolatte-style frother or equivalent. Pour two or three parts seltzer from a just-opened bottle, add a quarter to half-inch of chocolate syrup, and froth just a second or two at the very bottom to mix, preserving distinct layers.
This method gives a chocolatey top. Another method froths the milk and seltzer then pours the chocolate syrup in, causing a chocolate-colored bottom and white top.
Variations
The Brooklyn Egg Cream consisted of chocolate syrup while the New York Egg Cream used vanilla syrup. The vanilla egg cream was offered for 5 cents in the 1950s and 1960s at classic Manhattan candy and newspaper shops in Yorkville and East Harlem.Similar beverages
Other sweet soda- and milk-based beverages include the VietnameseCuisine of Vietnam
Vietnamese cuisine is a style of cooking derived from Vietnam. Fish sauce and paste, soy paste, rice, fresh herbs, fruits and vegetables are commonly used. Vietnamese recipes utilize a diverse range of herbs, including lemongrass, mint, Vietnamese mint, long coriander and Thai basil leaves...
soda sữa hột gà, a beverage prepared with sweetened condensed milk, egg yolk
Egg yolk
An egg yolk is a part of an egg which feeds the developing embryo. The egg yolk is suspended in the egg white by one or two spiral bands of tissue called the chalazae...
, and soda water.
Milkis
Milkis
Milkis is a soft drink produced by Lotte Chilsung, a Korean beverage company. It combines many of the common elements of traditional carbonated beverages such as corn syrup, sugar, and carbonated water with milk to create a creamy taste; its label proclaims "New feeling of soda beverage"...
, 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-20th century oil boom, made of coffee liqueur, cream, and soda water.
There may also be other alcoholic cocktail variants that make use of eggs, often called a "something sour", see Sour (cocktail)
Sour (cocktail)
A sour is a traditional family of mixed drinks. Common examples of sours are the Margarita and the Sidecar. Sours belong to one of the old families of original cocktails and are described by Jerry Thomas in his 1862 book, How to Mix Drinks Sours are mixed drinks containing a base liquor , lemon...
for details.
World's largest
In June 1980, Stuart Grunther and Ron Roth owned a siphon seltzer distributing company in NYC called Seltzer Unlimited. They were responsible for creating the world's largest chocolate egg cream in Central Park, NY. It was 110 gallons in size and the contents were given away. Major media coverage included the AP wire services. The event was sponsored by Fox's U-Bet syrup and the NYC Parks Department.External links
- Egg cream on h2g2H2g2h2g2 is a British-based collaborative online encyclopedia project engaged in the construction of, in its own words, "an unconventional guide to life, the universe, and everything", in the spirit of the fictional publication The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy from the science fiction comedy series...
- Origins of the Egg Cream
- "The True Origins of the Egg Cream," by Daniel Bell
- Egg cream recipe from H. Fox & Co.
- Egg Cream recipe
- "Gerritsen Beach