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Hot Egg Phosphate
I. One and one-half ounces lemon syrup, I fresh egg, 1 dram acid phosphate, 1 ounce cold water; put into a combination shaker and shake thoroughly; strain into a cup, then fill with hot water; top with nutmeg. 2. One egg, about 3 teaspoonfuls lemon juice, about 10 drops soluble extract lemon, 3 large teaspoonfuls confectioner's sugar, small quantity prepared spice, about 15 drops extract cognac. These ingredients are placed in a combination shaker and thoroughly shaken; then strained through julep strainer into hot soda cup; to this add two large tablespoonfuls of whipped cream. Draw hot water into side of cup, and stir bottom only. 3. One to ½ ounces lemon syrup, 1 ounce solution of acid phosphates, 1 egg, hot water to fill an 8-ounce mug; or 2 ounces lemon syrup, 1 egg, ½ ounce solution acid phosphates. Mix in a glass and shake together thoroughly; pour into another glass, heated previously, and slowly draw full of hot water; season with nutmeg. 4. Break fresh egg into shaker and add ½ ounce pineapple syrup, ½ ounce orange syrup, 1 dash phosphate. Shake, without ice, and pour into bouillon cup. Draw cup full of hot water, sprinkle a touch of cinnamon, and serve with Long Branch wafers. 5. This makes a really excellent hot drink. It is delicious and nourishing. One and one-half ounces lemon syrup, I fresh egg, 1 dram American Acid Phosphate, 1 ounce cold water. Put the above ingredients into the shaker and shake until thoroughly beaten together, strain into cup, and fill with hot water. Top with grated nutmeg.
All five versions are the same drink: a raw egg shaken with flavored syrup and acid phosphate, then let down with hot water drawn from the fountain tap. The notes below explain the units and the ingredients, and why the method itself is the problem.
- The raw egg is the reason to stopThe egg is never cooked. Hot water drawn from a soda fountain, poured into a cup already holding an ounce of cold liquid and a whole egg, lands well under any temperature that would kill Salmonella, and the drink is served immediately rather than held. This was written before the modern understanding of egg-borne infection; use a current recipe if you want a hot egg drink.
- Shell eggs and acid do not fix itThe acid phosphate and lemon juice may slightly thicken the egg, which can read as "cooked" in the glass. It is not. Acidity at this dilution does not pasteurize, and a "fresh egg" when this was written meant an unrefrigerated egg of unknown age.
- Acid phosphateA solution of dilute phosphoric acid with calcium, magnesium and potassium salts, once the standard tart note at American fountains and still sold today for cocktail and soda work. It is not the same thing as citric acid or cream of tartar, and it contributes almost no flavor of its own beyond a dry mineral bite.
- Dram and ounceA fluid dram is one-eighth of a fluid ounce, roughly 3.7 ml, so version 1 uses about three-quarters of a teaspoon of phosphate; the recipe does not say how large the cup is, though version 3 specifies an 8-ounce mug. Note how far version 3 departs from it: a full ounce of phosphate solution is eight times as much.
- Soluble extract lemon and extract cognacFountain flavorings, alcohol- or glycerin-based, dosed by the drop from a dropper bottle. "Extract cognac" is a flavoring compound rather than brandy, and the "prepared spice" of version 2 would have been a house or proprietary spice mix; the recipe does not specify what went into it.
- Combination shaker and julep strainerThe combination shaker is the two-piece metal shaker of the period; the julep strainer is the perforated bowl that sits in the mouth of a glass and catches solids. Both are still used in bar work in much the same form.
- Long Branch wafersThin, crisp, faintly sweet crackers, the name apparently taken from the New Jersey seaside resort, served with hot fountain drinks and bouillon. Nothing is sold under that name now; a plain water biscuit is the nearest thing.
Soda fountains in the northern states had an off-season problem: nobody wants iced phosphates in February. The answer was a hot menu served in bouillon cups and heavy mugs, and the egg phosphate was one of its staples, marketed as "nourishing" at a time when a whole raw egg beaten into a drink was common convalescent food and many fountains were still run by pharmacists as an extension of the dispensing counter. Acid phosphate itself came out of the later nineteenth-century vogue for phosphates as tonics, and the fountain kept using it as a souring agent after the medical claims faded. Variants of this kind were the sort of thing trade journals solicited from working dispensers, which may be why one calls for a dram of phosphate and another for a full ounce.