Egg cream

File:Eggcreamparts.JPG chocolate syrup,{{cite magazine |last=Mead |first=Rebecca |date=8 August 2011 |title=Proustian |magazine=The New Yorker |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/08/15/proustian |access-date=12 March 2022 |archive-date=30 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211130221856/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/08/15/proustian |url-status=live }} 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."{{cite book |last=Mariani |first=John F. |date=1999 |title=Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink |publisher=Lebhar-Friedman:New York}}

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 {{lang|de|echt}} ('genuine' or 'real'), making an egg cream a "good cream".{{cite web |last=Ringler |first=Rachel |date=16 June 2021 |title=What is an egg cream and why is it so Jewish? |website=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |url=https://www.jta.org/2021/06/16/food/what-is-an-egg-cream-and-why-is-it-so-jewish |access-date=12 March 2022 |archive-date=21 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211221195917/https://www.jta.org/2021/06/16/food/what-is-an-egg-cream-and-why-is-it-so-jewish |url-status=live }}

Another explanation comes from reports that it grew out of a request for {{lang|fr|chocolat et crème}} from someone, possibly the actor Boris Thomashefsky{{cite news |last=Gould |first=Jillian |date=2002 |title=Candy Stores and Egg Creams |work=Jews of Brooklyn |publisher=UPNE |page=203}} (who had experienced a similar drink in Paris.){{cite web |last=Stradley |first=Linda |date=17 April 2015 |title=New York Egg Cream Recipe and History |website=What's Cooking America |url=https://whatscookingamerica.net/history/nyeggcreamhistory.htm |access-date=12 March 2022 |archive-date=20 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220320040029/https://whatscookingamerica.net/history/nyeggcreamhistory.htm |url-status=live }}{{cite news |last=Lee |first=Jennifer |date=5 August 2008 |title=Can the Egg Cream Make a Comeback? |work=City Room |publisher=The New York Times Company |url=https://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/05/can-the-egg-cream-make-a-comeback/ |access-date=12 March 2022 |archive-date=28 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220128092933/https://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/05/can-the-egg-cream-make-a-comeback/ |url-status=live }} His heavy accent altered the name into something like "egg cream," which then developed into the current term.

However, 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)."{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Andrew F. |date=2014 |title=New York City: A Food Biography |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |page=111}} In fact, an 1850 source already presents a similar egg cream, but without the soda water and flavored differently: "How to Make Egg Cream. Take the yolk of an egg, with a dessert spoonful of cream or new milk, and, if convenient, add two drops of oil of cinnamon."{{cite book |last=Blake |first=John Lauris |date=1850 |title=The Farmer's Every-day Book: Or, Sketches of Social Life in the Country: with the Popular Elements of Practical and Theoretical Agriculture, and Twelve Hundred Laconics and Apothegms Relating to Ethics, Religion, and General Literature; Also Five Hundred Receipts on Hygeian, Domestic, and Rural Economy |publisher=Derby, Miller and Company |page=566}} In 1885, George Peltz showed the froth being created by whipping the egg: "Egg Cream.—Beat a raw egg to a stiff froth; add a tablespoonful of white sugar and a half wineglass of good blackberry wine; add half a glass of cream; beat together thoroughly, and use at once."{{cite book |last=Peltz |first=George A. |date=1885 |title=The Housewife's Library: (many Volumes in One) : Furnishing the Very Best Help in All the Necessities, Intricacies, Emergencies, and Vexations that Puzzle a Housekeeper in Every Department of Her Duties in the Home : Household Management, Domestic Cookery, Home Furnishing, Home Decoration, Polite Deportment, Trying Emergencies, Care of Children, Games, Amusements, Etc., General Hints |publisher=Edgewood Publishing Company |page=250}}

The term "egg cream" then was in fact used for mixtures that included both before it came to be used - by a process that is not well-documented - for a drink that included neither.

{{portal|Drink}}

• {{anl|Dirty soda}}
• {{anl|Italian soda}}
• {{anl|Milkis}}
• {{anl|Pilk}}
• {{anl|Seltzer}}
• {{anl|List of chocolate beverages}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Wiktionary}}

{{Commonscat}}

• {{cite web |last=Beller |first=Daniel |title=The True Origins of the Egg Cream |website=Mr Beller's Neighborhood |url=http://www.mrbellersneighborhood.com/story.php?storyid=1916}}
• {{cite news |last=Wharton |first=Rachel |title=The Return of The Egg Cream |work=Brooklyn Eats |publisher=Heritage Radio Network |url=http://www.heritageradionetwork.com/programs/40-Brooklyn-Eats?page=2 |access-date=2 January 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110114005014/http://www.heritageradionetwork.com/programs/40-Brooklyn-Eats?page=2 |archive-date=14 January 2011}} (Radio episode)

{{Jewish cuisine}}

{{Chocolate beverages}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Egg Cream}}

Category:American drinks

Category:Jewish American cuisine

Category:Chocolate drinks

Category:Cuisine of New York City

Category:Milk-based drinks

Category:Historical foods in American cuisine

Category:Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine