Greeley Shake

A fountain shake from the era when the soda clerk worked with syrup pumps, a shaved-ice bin and a pressurized carbonator. The mechanics translate easily; the whole raw egg does not.

• The raw egg is the problemThe egg goes into the shaker uncooked and is never heated at any point. Shell eggs can carry Salmonella internally, and a cold drink built on ice gives the organism no lethal step whatsoever. Anyone wanting an egg-based fountain drink should follow a current recipe written around pasteurized eggs.
• Why the egg was thereIt was not mainly flavour. The white supplies protein that foams under the shaker and helps hold a head once soda water is added; the yolk gives body and carries the fruit syrups. Without it the drink is thinner and fizzier.
• Fountain syrupsLemon, orange and raspberry syrups were sweetened bases, generally heavier and thicker than a modern cordial, though the recipe gives no strength. Three tablespoons of syrup make this a sweet drink.
• "Sweet cream"Cream that is fresh rather than soured or cultured, not cream that has been sweetened. Fat content was not standardised at the time; today's light cream or half-and-half is a reasonable stand-in.
• "Shake"A two-vessel metal shaker worked by hand. Note that no ice goes into the shaking stage here; the ice is in the glass, and the shaken mixture is strained over it.
• Chopped ice and soda waterChopped rather than cubed ice chills the drink fast, and the soda water breaks over it into foam. The quantities make one drink.