A Brooklyn Egg Cream

When Brooklyn Was the World.

Born of the soda fountain era, the legendary Egg Cream is deceptive, for its flavor and texture depend entirely on the correct preparation. There is no egg in an Egg Cream, but if the ingredients are mixed properly, a foamy, egg-white-like head tops the drink. The invention of the Egg Cream is credited to Louis Auster, a Brooklyn candy shop owner in 1890. Auster's concoction sold for three cents, and he sold as many as three thousand on a hot summer day. Lines would form down the street and around the corner, and it started a tradition of drinking the egg cream while standing -- never sitting. Egg creams were so popular in Brooklyn that author Elliot Willensky writes "a candy store minus an Egg Cream, in Brooklyn at least, was as difficult to conceive of as the Earth without gravity."
This frothy wine of our youth can still be found in New York City, especially in Brooklyn's neighborhood delis and soda fountains. But outside New York they are nearly impossible to find, so we have happily assembled all the supplies and equipment you need to make and serve genuine Egg Creams at home. A glass, not a paper cup, and ice-cold milk are basic to the success of an honest Egg Cream, and Fox's U-Bet Syrup is considered an essential ingredient in the mix.

True New Yorkers insist that it is not a classic egg cream without Fox's U-Bet Fountain Syrup. "Money, diamonds, jewels I could refuse, but never a couple of jars of U-bet chocolate," wrote Brooklyn native Mel Brooks to the makers of U-Bet. "Send it to me quick, now. Milk and seltzer are waiting."

-The New York First Company Article



The Original Brooklyn Egg-Cream
Take a tall, chilled, straight-sided, 8oz. glass
Spoon 1 inch of U-bet Chocolate syrup into glass
Add 1 inch of ICE COLD whole milk
Tilt the glass and spray seltzer (from a pressurized cylinder only) off a spoon, to make a big chocolate head
Stir, Drink, Enjoy





THE COMPLETE BROOKLYN EGG CREAM KIT.

I love egg creams. They are so good. My dad made the best!

I haven't had one in years, but have seen them crop up on menus lately. And they're $3!!!

Here's a funny scene from the West Wing that you might appreciate:

Toby enters the residence, and the Prez declares, "I'm drinking the most fantastic thing I've ever tasted in my life!" Oh, I love it when the Prez is whimsical. The Prez holds up his glass and indicates that it contains "chocolate syrup, cold milk, and seltzer. I know it sounds terrible, but trust me, I don't know where this has been all my life!" Toby says, "It's called an egg cream, Mr. President; we invented it in Brooklyn." The Prez is disturbed to hear that this concoction was invented in Brooklyn. Toby says, "There are some good things in this world not from New England, sir." The Prez replies, "Toby, don't ever let me hear you say that again."

My mom used to make egg creams for me when I was kid. She'd throw in a raw egg too. That was a REAL egg cream. (No kidding)

EDIT: Never mind.... I was having a senior moment. My mother used to put a raw egg in malteds for me (not an egg cream).

You know I don't think I've ever had an egg cream. Yet it seems like I've heard of it (like the Easter cream egg candy). It does sound like an ice cream soda (without the ice cream :p) Anyway, it doesn't sound bad.


TIS

It was a rite of passage here, TIS. When you were going to the malt shop with your friends in Michigan we were going to the candy store for an egg cream.

This is off topic a little but they had this segment on the Today Show this morning. After I watched it I thought of you NY locals and you don't know how bad I want to come out there and get one.

Brooklyn Pizza

You gotta watch the commercial first.

Thats the place that DC and I are always talking about, Mig (L&B Spumoni Gardens).

I know that is why I want to come out there. When I come out there will you be my tour guide?

If it fits my schedule, I'd be happy to guide you around Brooklyn.

Aw bless you're lovin heart

...yet the "COMPLETE" Brooklyn Egg Cream Kit doesn't include a pressurized cylinder.....

The kids would love 'em....
Hell,never mind the kids,so would the grown-ups

You really don't need the pressurized cyclinder to make them at home. That was more of a candy store/luncheonette thing.

I make them at home WITHOUT the pressurized Seltzer, instaed just pouring the seltzer in as I stir the syrup and the milk. It doesn't have exactly the same effect, but it comes out pretty close.

Years ago many people had a "Soda Man" who used to deliver Hoffman's and Dr. Browns soda directly to your home. One of the perks of having soda delivered to your home was that the Soda Man would provide a Seltzer Bottle with a pressurized cylinder and would fill it up for you on a need basis and also replace the bottle if the cylinder stopped working.

My grandmother had a soda man. It was the best soda I've ever had.

My dad said that the secret to a good egg cream. It had to be 1/3 milk and 2/3 seltzer. And he would always stir the milk and syrup together before adding the seltzer. He made some pretty damn good ones, I can tell you that!

You hafta do that! If you don't (and stir after all three ingredients are added) the seltzer goes flat.

Well, he was a pharmacist, and years ago all the drug stores had soda fountains. He made the best ice cream sodas and malteds and egg creams.

One night, when he was locking up the store, he allowed my mother to make herself a malted. She didn't understand the fill line, and when she put the container in the mixer, the malted ended up all over the walls!

Mmmmmmm... a malted!

I'd love one now!!!

My mom used to have one of those old fashioned machines with which to make them (similar to below). Somehow my brother ended up with it.

Egg cremes had a bonding effect in a situation quite a few years back:
I was at the Ritz Carlton in Naples, FL, courtesy of my employer. While sitting at a dinner table at their fancy restaurant with other execs, I got into a conversation with a senior person who told me he'd be driving to Miami after the meeting to visit his retired father. His dad, he told me, was in the garment business--had a showroom on Seventh Avenue in NYC, but his factory was on Thatford Street in Brownsville, Brooklyn. I told him that I grew up in Brownsville, near Thatford Street--but the area was devastated now. "Only thing left is the Fox's U-Bet factory," I added. The guy's eyes lit up at the mention of that fabled syrup. We then spent the rest of the dinner discussing egg cremes and the relative merits of Fox's U-Bet vs. Bloomers (the only other chocolate syrup suitable for egg cremes--forget about Hershey's). The other people at the table looked at us as if we were from Mars.

I'd look at you like you were from Mars, too. The only bloomers I ever heard of were the old big panties that women used to wear.

According to my wife, her brother, as a little kid, refused to drink chocolate milk made with Bloomers, for that reason. His mother had to toss it in favor of Fox's.

That must've been BMT (not the subway line - Before My Time). I never heard of it.

FWIW - I don't blame your brother-in-law.

Would you drink chocolate milk made with these?

...well, they look clean enough...
I bet Paulie Walnuts would, if they were Adriana's pants...

Damn, I would

bump

only because I listened to a great podcast recently about food gangsters and the "egg cream wars" were mentioned

http://heritageradionetwork.org/podcast/a-taste-of-the-past-episode-134-food-gangsters/

Aired: Thursday, May 2nd 2013
33:36


Did you know that gangsters controlled nearly all of the food distribution in Depression-era New York City? This week on A Taste of the Past, Linda Pelaccio invites Andy Coe to talk about racketeering in New York City food history. Learn how something as innocent as an egg cream was the cause of major crime. Find out what products were controlled by specific gangsters, and how the food rackets weren’t eliminated from the Big Apple until the days of Giuliani! Learn about Murder Inc., and how competition was dealt with in the 1940s. Calling all fans of The Godfather: you don’t want to miss this installment of A Taste of the Past!

Adriana nickname was butaface. She had everything, but a face.

On egg creams to have the perfect egg cream you need a stick pretzel with it everyone knows that fact.