Ever had a New York Egg Cream?

On By StevenIn Life At Home, When I Was A Wee Person

During NanoPoblano, November’s blogging challenge, I stumbled across a note that March 15th is National Egg Cream Day, and that got me thinking. My parents loved New York Egg Creams when I was growing up. I didn’t really know that much about the drink, but I remember my mom having them all the time when I was younger. I never enjoyed them when I was younger because I don’t really like seltzer water.

I should back up and explain Egg Creams. I realized when I started talking about New York or Brooklyn Egg Creams over the last few days that a lot of people don’t know about these, or have never had one. So let’s talk about the drink itself.

First of all, an Egg Cream contains neither egg nor cream. It’s a misnomer. There’s a lot of theories as to why this is, but most of them circle back to anecdotes from the early 1900s. This drink was historically most popular with Eastern European Jewish immigrants in the New York area. This totally fits with my parents- My father was a first-generation American, and my mother is a second-generation American. About a hundred years ago, we were all in the old country. But I digress. Back to the etymology of the egg cream!

One theory holds that someone was saying “echt keem” in Yiddish, which the Internet tells me is close to Yiddish for “pure sweetness,” and the name caught on. Another theory is that a guy named Boris Thomashefsky asked a New York soda jerk to make the Parisian drink “chocolate et creme,” and the correct pronunciation of the word was lost in translation. A third theory goes much simpler and just says that since grade A milk was used in the making, “chocolate A cream” was eventually shortened to “egg cream.” Nobody alive today really knows for sure why it’s called an egg cream, or who first made one.

A popular theory attributes the egg cream to a man named Louis Auster, a candy shop owner on the Lower East Side. The story goes that he made the first one by accident using a store-made chocolate syrup, and became instantly popular.

Historians are quick to point out that there was a popular drink made in the 1880s from chocolate syrup, cream, and raw eggs mixed into soda water. While that sounds positively disgusting to me, the theory goes that the version of the egg cream that we know today was a version served in poorer neighborhoods.

What it does contain is milk, seltzer water, and chocolate syrup. If you go hunting for Egg Cream recipes on the Internet, the vast majority of them will specifically point you toward either Bosco or Fox’s U-Bet Chocolate Syrup, and with good reason. In my opinion, Fox’s is thicker and more chocolatey than other brands. It contains real cocoa ever since it was introduced in 1900, and you can taste that clearly. Both of my parents loved Fox’s U-Bet, and I was happy to discover when I started looking at recipes that it’s still readily available.

It’s impossible to make a real New York Egg Cream at home. An actual egg cream is made at a soda fountain, and a big part of what makes the drink so delightful is the foamy head. You can get close mixing them at home, but it will never be quite as fizzy and ephemeral as the originals- because they used old-timey soda fountains, the drink would have to be enjoyed within a few minutes or it would go flat. (I wonder if one of those SodaStream doo-dads would work for this…)

That’s not to say that you certainly can’t give it a good try! While researching for this post, I found no less than eight different recipes for a New York/Brooklyn/Bronx Egg Cream. Most of the differences are about the percentages of the ingredients.

Here’s the recipe I used to try an egg cream:

• Fox’s U-Bet chocolate flavor syrup
• Cold whole milk or half-and-half
• Ice-cold club soda or seltzer water

How to make it: Pour 3 tablespoons of chocolate syrup and 1/4 cup of milk or half-and-half into a 16-ounce glass. While beating vigorously with a fork, slowly add club soda or seltzer until the glass is almost full. Add a straw and serve very cold.

I made some adjustments, of course. I don’t usually keep milk in the house because I can’t drink it without some discomfort, so I used oat milk. My seltzer water was refrigerated but hardly ice-cold. And of course, I didn’t measure a damn thing. I don’t know if I used three tablespoons of U-Bet, or if my milk-to-seltzer ratio was even close to right. I didn’t drink it with a straw. And I’m almost positive that my frothy head wasn’t nearly frothy enough.

I do know that it was pretty damn tasty, though. I think I get why my parents love these things.

Have you ever had a New York Egg Cream?

52/52! Achievement unlocked!

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26 thoughts on “Ever had a New York Egg Cream?”

  1. Lorrie

    Congrats on unlocking your achievement goal. 🙂
    It’s been years since I’ve had one. Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. In Lake Worth used to make them.

    Liked by 2 people

  3. I have never been to New York and never had an egg cream. Loved reading the history of it though! I have had a chocolate soda, which is chocolate syrup and soda water from an old fashioned soda shop or a chocolate soda float, which adds a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Maybe they are the Midwest variations?

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  4. Bunny

    A Soda Stream machine won’t make it any frothier. In fact, I don’t get as many bubbles as in a bottle of club soda. Maybe you can put the club soda in the freezer for half an hour to make it really cold. I would bet you could get it really frothy putting the ingredients into a blender. Put in the chocolate and milk, wazz it up a bit, then, while it’s running, pour in the club soda through the hole in the top. Hmmm. I’ll let you know how that works out.

    Liked by 2 people

  5. This sounds interesting. In the series somebody feed Phil, Phil Rosenthal visits Japan and he demonstrates a drink something like this to a Japanese family. It’s this the same? I haven’t had egg cream before.. But good information..

    Liked by 2 people

  7. If I’m being perfectly honest, I didn’t want to read this at first because I thought I would find some horrifying meringue-type soda recipe. I’m glad my curiosity got the better of me — that sounds pretty good! I’m not much for chocolatey things, but I’d definitely give that a try.
    And congrats on 52!!

    Liked by 2 people

  10. You will not be surprised to hear that I haven’t had a New York Egg Cream. But , and this is a big but……..I have now had a Twinkie!!! Sold in my local record store which has a massive selection of American sweet stuff.

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  11. It was very sweet. Maybe a bit too sweet for me but I would still try other flavours.I say ‘it’ because I only got to try one meaning my opinion is not shared by the rest of the house. Middlest says thank you 😊

    Liked by 2 people

  15. Hi Steven, this strikes home with me on many levels. As for mixing raw eggs with milk to create any kind of drink, that actually makes sense. Think of Rocky consuming raw eggs. My mom used to love a variation of this adding bananas. Now, egg creams will sound foreign to many folks but I think also intriguing to more curious minds. I was introduced to egg creams on my first visit to NYC back in the ’80s. One thing led to another, and in a sort of tribute to NYC and folks working in the local NYC food industry, I created a book on the theme of the egg cream. You can find it on Amazon. It is entitled, “Sometimes You Just Want an Egg Cream.” I would sincerely appreciate your opinion on it. Also, as far as making an egg cream drink at home, I have gone through much trial and error and hit upon a quick fix. I find that Ginger Ale works really well, especially if you do a fast pour holding the can up very high from the glass as this will create plenty of that sought after foam! Of course, a classic seltzer dispenser is ideal.

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    1. Thanks for stopping by, Henry! Good timing, too! According to my calendar, tomorrow is National Egg Cream Day! And thanks for the ginger-ale tip; I hadn’t tried it with that variant before.

      Liked by 1 person

  16. Rafael Ortiz

    Yes , many times. I lived in the Bronx, near Yankee stadium. My mom would take me to get an egg cream. Then moved to Brooklyn, and was re-introduced to the egg cream , in a diner in Coney Island.

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