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The Continental
Mix one tablespoonful of orgeat syrup and two tablespoonfuls of raspberry syrup. Add one egg and shake well. Pour into a glass one fourth full of cracked ice and fill up with milk.
A soda-fountain milk shake from the era when American bar books were being rewritten without liquor. The problem is the egg, which is never heated at any point.
- Why the cautionThe whole egg goes in raw and the finished drink is served cold over ice, so nothing in the process ever reaches a temperature that would kill Salmonella. A shaken raw-egg beverage sat in a warm glass is exactly the situation food-safety guidance now advises against, particularly for children, older drinkers and anyone pregnant or immune-compromised. If you want a drink of this kind, follow a current recipe written with that risk in mind.
- OrgeatAn almond syrup, sweet and faintly floral, usually flavoured with orange-flower water. Period orgeat was often built on bitter almonds, which carry cyanogenic compounds; commercial syrup sold today is made from sweet almonds or almond flavouring and is a different product from what the author had.
- Raspberry syrupThe soda-fountain article, a thick sugar syrup rather than a thin coulis or a modern flavouring shot. Two tablespoons of it and one of orgeat is the entire sweetening for the glass.
- "Shake well"The shaking happens before the ice: only the syrups and egg are in the tin. The ice goes into the serving glass afterwards, and the milk is poured over it.
Books like this one appeared in the years when American drinking was being legislated out of existence, and the phrase "on the water wagon" was already common slang for having sworn off liquor. Their contents owe a good deal to the soda fountain, which by 1900 had developed a full professional repertoire of syrups, shakes, egg drinks and phosphates served by a dispenser who worked much like a bartender, with the same tins and the same theatre. Egg shakes of this sort were sold as nourishment as much as refreshment, part of a long tradition in which a raw egg beaten into a sweetened drink was considered strengthening for invalids and workers alike. The pairing of orgeat with a bright fruit syrup is a fountain habit inherited directly from the pre-Prohibition bar.