Egg cream

An egg cream is a cold beverage consisting of milk, carbonated water, and flavored syrup (typically chocolate or vanilla). Despite the name, the drink contains neither eggs nor cream.

Not to be confused with Creme Egg.
Egg cream
TypeFountain beverage
Country of originUnited States
FlavorVarious; primarily chocolate, but can be any flavored syrup
IngredientsFlavored syrup, milk, soda water

It is prepared by pouring syrup into the glass, adding milk, lightly stirring it with a spoon, then streaming soda water into the glass, mixing the other ingredients. Ideally, the glass is left with 2/3 liquid and 1/3 foamy head.[1]

The egg cream is almost exclusively a fountain drink. Although there have been several attempts to bottle it, none have been wholly successful, as its refreshing taste and characteristic head require mixing of the ingredients just before drinking.

Etymology theories and speculations
The ingredients of an egg cream: Fox's U-Bet chocolate syrup, seltzer, and whole milk

The peculiarity that an egg cream contains neither eggs nor cream has been explained in various ways. Stanley Auster, who claims that his grandfather invented the beverage, has said that the origins of the name are "lost in time."[2]

The egg cream originated among Yiddish-speaking Eastern European Jewish immigrants in New York City, so one explanation claims that egg is a corruption of the Yiddish echt 'genuine or real', making an egg cream a "good cream".

Food historian Andrew Smith writes: "During the 1880s, a popular specialty was made with chocolate syrup, cream, and raw eggs mixed into soda water. In poorer neighborhoods, a less expensive version of this treat was created, called the Egg Cream (made without the eggs or cream)."[3]

Another explanation comes from reports that it grew out of a request for chocolat et crème from someone, possibly the actor Boris Thomashefsky[4] who had experienced a similar drink in Paris, which according to his heavy accent morphed the name into something like "egg cream", which then developed into the current term.

Egg cream was in decline by the early 1990s because the difficulty of making each egg cream to order made them more time consuming than newer soft drinks like root beer and demand declined as well.[5][6]

See also

References
  1. Stern, Michael and Jane (Jul 10, 1985). "Egg Cream is a delicacy at candy store in Bronx". The Evening Independent. p. 3B. Retrieved 29 March 2015.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  2. Mariani, John F. (1999). Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink. Lebhar-Friedman:New York.
  3. Smith, Andrew F. (2014). New York City: A Food Biography. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 111.
  4. Gould, Jillian (2002). "Candy Stores and Egg Creams". Jews of Brooklyn. UPNE. p. 203.
  5. "ABOUT NEW YORK; Egg Cream Diaspora: Bottling of a City Nectar". The New York Times. 1994.
  6. "Requiem for an Egg Cream: In Search of a New York Classic". 2014.
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