Is there really egg in an egg cream?

Is there really egg in an egg cream?

No. The classic New York egg cream is a fizzy chocolate drink made from milk, seltzer and chocolate syrup (sometimes vanilla). It contains no egg and no cream. The Takeout, a food site, describes it that way.

What goes in it?

• Cold whole milk
• Ice-cold seltzer
• Chocolate syrup, with purists insisting on Fox’s U-Bet

How is it made?

1. Pour a little cold milk into a tall glass.
2. Add chocolate syrup.
3. Spray in seltzer from a height so a white foam forms.
4. Stir quickly and drink at once.

Proportions vary by shop, so adjust to taste.

Where does the name come from?

Nobody knows for certain. Stories include:

• A Brooklyn candy store owner, Louis Auster, around the turn of the 20th century, with the name possibly from Yiddish “echt keem” (pure sweetness).
• Sociologist Daniel Bell told New York magazine that his uncle’s 1920s version had real eggs and cream, which disappeared during the Great Depression when they became scarce and expensive.
• A tale that a Yiddish actor ordered a Parisian drink called “chocolat et creme” and a soda jerk misheard it.

Each is a story, not a proven record. The Takeout does not say whether the earliest version had egg.

Egg cream facts to remember

The foam gives the drink its look. It is best made fresh, because the fizz fades in minutes.

Egg cream at home

Use very cold milk and seltzer, and add the seltzer last with force. A tall, narrow glass gives better foam. Keep the syrup measure small, since too much sinks and stays unmixed. Vanilla syrup gives a vanilla egg cream. Nothing in the recipe needs refrigeration time, so make it just before serving. Because there is no raw egg, it has none of the salmonella concern that applies to egg soda.