The Egg Cream

To egg cream-lovers, how you make it matters. According to one school of egg cream-making, you mix a little chocolate syrup with cold milk, then give the glass a good spritz with cold seltzer to create a delicious foamy head. But another school says you pour in milk, add seltzer to the top, mix it vigorously and then carefully drizzle in the syrup without disturbing the froth.

Either way, no eggs or cream are required. So how did the egg cream get its name? Well, there are schools of thought on that too. One is that the egg cream’s foamy head, which resembles beaten egg whites, and creamy, smooth taste gave the soda its name. But some say that the original recipe (prepared by a Brooklyn candy shop owner in 1890) may have used eggs and cream instead of milk. Indeed, one egg cream recipe we found in the 1906 version of “The Standard Manual of Soda and Other Beverages,” a guide for druggists and confectioners by A. Emil Hiss, calls for four egg yolks, cream, syrup, seltzer and even vanilla extract, with grated nutmeg sprinkled over the foam. That may not be a New Yorker’s idea of a true egg cream, but it might just be the real thing.

EGG CREAM

2 tablespoons chocolate syrup

1/3 cup cold milk

2/3 cup cold seltzer

Serve the egg cream immediately after spritzing in the seltzer. Within minutes, it can lose its froth and go flat.

Pour chocolate syrup into 12-ounce glass. Add milk and stir. Slowly add seltzer, stirring quickly to create foamy head.

1 serving. Each serving:

132 calories; 98 mg sodium; 6 mg cholesterol; 2 grams fat; 29 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams protein; 0.23 gram fiber.

RASPBERRY SODA

1/4 cup raspberry syrup

Cold seltzer

Pour syrup into 12-ounce glass. Fill glass to top with seltzer and mix well.

1 serving. Each serving:

150 calories; 0 sodium; 0 cholesterol; 2 grams fat; 36 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams protein; 0 fiber.