Imperial Cream

This is a fountain drink built on a raw egg white and raw cream, neither of which is ever heated. The terminology is worth decoding even though the drink itself should not be assembled from the text as it stands.

• Raw egg whiteThe whole structure of the drink depends on an uncooked egg white shaken to a foam and served immediately. Shell eggs can carry Salmonella Enteritidis inside the intact egg, and nothing in this procedure heats the egg, acidifies it, or holds it long enough to matter. A current recipe using pasteurized egg white should be consulted instead.
• "Pure cream"In the fountain era this would generally have been unpasteurized cream, since pasteurization was not yet standard. Raw dairy is a documented vehicle for Listeria, Campylobacter and Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, and the drink is served cold, so there is no step that reduces that risk.
• Shaved iceFountain ice was shaved from a block. Here it is shaken with the mixture and then strained out, so it chills and lightly dilutes rather than remaining in the glass.
• A tumblerfulFountain tumblers of the era ran roughly 8 to 10 ounces, so a half tumblerful of shaved ice is about 4 to 5 ounces loosely packed. An ounce here is a fluid ounce, drawn from the dispenser's graduated measure, not a weight.
• Cream soda syrupNot the flavor sold under that name now. Fountain cream soda syrup was generally a sugar syrup carrying vanilla, sometimes with a trace of citrus oil; formulas varied, and the dairy in a drink like this comes from the cream added at the counter rather than from the syrup.
• Plain sodaCarbonated water from the fountain. "Serve with nutmeg" means grated over the head of the drink as it is handed across, in the manner of an eggnog or a milk punch.