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Bonnie Belle Cream
Three-fourths ounce pineapple syrup, ¾ ounce vanilla syrup, 2 ounces ice cream, ¼ glass cracked ice, 1 egg. Shake, strain, toss and serve.
This is a fountain egg drink, and the egg goes into the glass raw and stays raw. That single fact governs everything below.
- The raw egg is the problemA whole shell egg is shaken with syrup, ice and ice cream and served immediately. Nothing in the procedure brings it anywhere near the 160F at which Salmonella in an intact egg is reliably killed, and the cracked ice keeps the whole drink cold throughout.
- Why 1900 was less worriedWhy the period was less worried -- Fountain manuals of this era treated a fresh egg as a wholesome thickener and a "nourishing" addition. Modern industrial egg supply carries a low but real rate of interior contamination that shaking cannot address.
- Shaking does not helpVigorous shaking with ice emulsifies the egg into the syrup and ice cream, which distributes any organism evenly through the glass rather than diluting the risk. Straining removes chalazae and shell fragments, nothing more.
- Who is most at riskChildren, pregnant women, older drinkers and anyone immunocompromised are least able to tolerate the infection.
- If you want the drinkUse a current recipe built on pasteurised shell eggs or pasteurised liquid egg, from a source that states the handling requirements. Do not attempt to adapt the proportions here.
- Reading the measures anywayAn ounce here is a fluid ounce of syrup drawn from the fountain pump, so "three-fourths ounce" is about a tablespoon and a half; "¼ glass" is a fraction of the mixing glass, whose size the recipe does not state. "Toss" appears to mean pouring the mixture between two glasses to aerate it before it goes to the customer.
Egg drinks were a staple of the American soda fountain from the 1880s through Prohibition, when the fountain took over much of the saloon's social function and needed a repertoire that sounded restorative as well as indulgent. Egg phosphates, egg lemonades and egg creams of this sort were marketed as strengthening. Names like Bonnie Belle belong to the fountain's habit of dressing up a formula of syrup, ice cream and egg in something proprietary; the pineapple-and-vanilla pairing was sweet enough to mask the egg entirely. Whether any particular Belle was meant is not documented.