Saturday, June 28, 2008

CLASSIC EGG CREAM? GLUTEN-FREE!

A Video Triple-Header

Have you heard of an egg cream? It's a classic New York City fountain drink that is famously lacking in eggs and cream.

The ingredients are simple: milk, plain seltzer, and chocolate syrup. As far as that third ingredient is concerned, many consider Fox's U-Bet Original Chocolate Flavor Syrup to be the flavoring of choice—and it is gluten-free!

Recipes for making an egg cream vary. Even Fox's offers more than one set of instructions. On the container, the directions for making a New York Egg Cream are
In A Tall Glass Pour 1/2 Inch of u-bet, 3/4 Inch Of Whole Milk, Add Carbonated Water & Mix Briskly.
But the Fox's website offers this variant as the way to make The Original Brooklyn Egg-Cream:
* Take a tall, chilled, straight-sided, 8oz. glass
* Spoon 1 inch of U-bet Chocolate syrup into glass
* Add 1 inch whole milk
* Tilt the glass and spray seltzer (from a pressurized cylinder only) off a spoon, to make a big chocolate head
* Stir, Drink, Enjoy
No matter your approach, what you should end up with should resemble a chocolate milk spritzer with a creamy foam head, or an chocolate ice cream soda without the ice cream (but with a creamy foam head). An egg cream is more substantial than plain seltzer but not as heavy as a chocolate shake, a refreshing thirst-quencher that will connect you with generations of kids (and adults) who bellied up to counters to enjoy this local specialty during the age of the soda fountain.

Here's a clear and simple demonstration of how to fix yourself an egg cream.



Source (1:17)


And here's video of a guy getting an egg cream at Eisenberg's Sandwich, the classic Madison Square coffee shop famous for its tuna melts—which are, alas, not gluten-free. In the latter part of the video you can see the making of another classic: the lime rickey. But I'm not ready to go into the nearly infinite varieties of that drink now!



Source (5:13)


And if you need any more proof of how cool egg creams are, here's Lou Reed singing "Egg Cream," complete with mentions of Fox's U-Bet!



Source (5:04)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I LOVE egg creams! Love Lou Reed...and most especially Fox's U-Bet chocolate syrup! Have you ever sent away for the pump? Fits right onto the jar...less mess & easier access!

David Marc Fischer said...

I haven't gotten a pump, actually. It's hard to imagine anything easier than flipping the container and squeezing, but I trust your word on this!