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Egg Phosphate Syrup (Lemon Syrup pints Orange Syrup)
Lemon Syrup, 2 pints; Orange Syrup, 2 pints.
Eggs 2⅔ dozens Phosphoric Acid (U. S.) 1 to 2 fluid ounces Thoroughly incorporate these ingredients with a Keystone beater or other suitable means.
This is a bulk soda-fountain preparation: roughly two quarts of flavoured syrup beaten together with thirty-two raw eggs and concentrated acid, then kept at the counter and dispensed by the glass over days. The problems are with the method itself rather than with any single measurement.
- Raw egg, never heatedThirty-two shell eggs (2⅔ dozen) go in raw and are never brought to any temperature at all. Nothing in the procedure kills Salmonella. The formula gives no storage or refrigeration instruction, and a batch of this size is clearly not meant to be finished at once.
- The acid does not make it safeThe recipe gives no indication of what acidity results, and the phosphoric acid is added for flavour, not as a preservative or a kill step. Sweetened syrup with beaten egg in it should be treated as a growth medium, not a hostile one.
- "Phosphoric Acid (U. S.)"This points to the official United States Pharmacopoeia article, but the Pharmacopoeia of this period carried both a concentrated syrupy acid and a dilute preparation, and the recipe does not say which is meant. If the concentrated grade is intended, it burns skin and eyes and attacks metal fittings, and is not something to measure by the ounce over an open bowl.
- Whole eggs, unspecifiedThe original does not say whether whites, yolks, or whole eggs are meant, nor whether the syrup is to be refrigerated. The recipe assumes a working fountain man who already knows, which is another sign it is not usable as written.
- If you want the flavourModern egg-phosphate and egg-cream style drinks are built to order from pasteurised egg product and a food-grade acid phosphate solution sold for the purpose. Use a current recipe from a current source.
The phosphate was one of the characteristic acid notes of the American soda fountain: a few drops of dilute acid phosphate cut the sweetness of fruit syrup and gave the tart, faintly mineral snap that gave cherry phosphates and lemon phosphates their name. The egg phosphate went a step further, beating egg into the mix for body and a foamy head, and raw egg in a glass was in this period often regarded as strengthening food. Trade manuals like this one were written for the dispenser working behind a counter, which is why the batch is large, the flavour syrups are assumed to be house stock, and the beater is named by brand rather than described.