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Egg Royal
Same as egg cider, using American Unfermented Grape Juice instead of cider.
A one-line cross-reference from a soda fountain manual, meaning it depends entirely on the "egg cider" formula printed elsewhere in the book: a whole raw egg shaken with sweetener and ice, lengthened with the fruit juice and strained into a glass. The raw egg is the reason this one stays on the page.
- Why not as writtenThe drink is built on a whole raw egg that is never heated at any stage. Shell eggs can carry Salmonella enteritidis internally, and neither the acid of grape juice nor the ice in the shaker reduces that risk. If you want a fountain-style egg drink, use a current recipe written for pasteurized egg.
- "American Unfermented Grape Juice"A period trade designation for bottled, pasteurized, non-alcoholic grape juice rather than a grape variety. Such juice was commonly Concord, Welch's being the best-known brand; ordinary bottled Concord juice is the nearest modern equivalent.
- What "egg cider" impliedIn American fountain usage "cider" generally meant sweet, unfermented apple cider, so Egg Royal appears to be a straight substitution of one non-alcoholic juice for another rather than an alcoholic drink.
- YieldThe entry gives no quantities; formulas of this kind were made to order as a single serving. Nothing here indicates a batch.
Unfermented grape juice was a temperance product before it was a breakfast one. Thomas Bramwell Welch, a Methodist dentist in Vineland, New Jersey, began bottling pasteurized grape juice in 1869 as a communion wine that congregations could take without alcohol, and by the turn of the century "American unfermented grape juice" was a standard trade line sold to druggists and soda fountains as well as churches. That may well be part of why it turns up in a soda book: the fountain had positioned itself as the respectable alternative to the saloon, and it needed drinks that looked and tasted like something a bar would serve. An egg shaken into juice gave body, foam and a sense of nourishment. Such drinks were, it seems, often marketed as restoratives and light meals as much as refreshments, which may also be why raw egg, malt and beef extract sat comfortably beside the syrups.