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Golden Fizz, Hot
One ounce Kola syrup, I yolk of egg, 2 dashes bitters. Mix the egg thoroughly with a whirling spoon. Add hot soda, stirring while filling. Serve grated nutmeg and cinnamon.
A fountain "hot drink" from the era when soda counters ran a steam-heated hot-water draught alongside the carbonated one. The problem is the egg: the recipe as written cannot bring it to a safe temperature, so it should be read rather than made.
- The raw yolk is the reasonA yolk stirred into a tumbler of hot water and served at once cannot be relied on to reach and hold a pasteurizing temperature, and nothing in the method cooks the egg. Salmonella in shell eggs is the risk this kind of drink carries. Use a current recipe with pasteurized eggs if you want a hot flip.
- "Hot soda" is not sodaAt a period fountain this meant plain water drawn near boiling from a heated tank, dispensed uncarbonated; carbonation will not hold at that temperature. The "fizz" in the name appears to carry over from the cold bar drink rather than to describe any gas in the glass.
- Kola syrupA sweet syrup flavored with kola nut extract, sold to fountains as a stimulant base and carrying real caffeine. It is not the same as modern cola syrup, which is a finished soft-drink concentrate, and it is not stocked in ordinary shops.
- A dashIn fountain and bar practice a dash of bitters is a short shake from the dasher-top bottle, conventionally reckoned at about 1/8 teaspoon, though period usage varied. Two dashes is a seasoning, not a flavor base.
- The whirling spoonA long-handled fountain spoon used to whip air into the egg at the counter, in place of shaking.
- YieldOne glass. The recipe gives no glass size and does not say how much hot soda to add; it is simply filled.
Hot fountain drinks were a winter staple for American soda counters: the same marble-topped bar that sold ice cream sodas in July sold hot kola, hot beef bouillon and hot lemonade in January, drawn from a heated tank under the counter. "Golden Fizz" is a name borrowed from the bar trade, where a fizz made with the egg white was a silver fizz and one made with the yolk alone was golden; the soda dispenser's version simply swapped gin and lemon for kola syrup and bitters, which fits the wider pattern of fountain formularies shadowing cocktail books while staying nominally temperate. Kola syrups were sold in this period as much for their tonic reputation as their taste, and the grated nutmeg and cinnamon on top place the drink in the long line of egg flips and possets drunk hot for medicinal comfort in Anglo-American households.