The great egg cream controversy

This beautiful egg cream is from Peter Pan in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. It would not, however, satisfy the purists in the great egg cream controversy. Photo by Vicky Wasik for Serious Eats.

I’m writing the day before Passover and have found, unfortunately, that there is very little availability of the U-Bet Kosher for Passover Chocolate Syrup this year and it is not safe to go from store to store looking for it. So rather than publish a recipe many readers can’t make, we’re going to split this post on the great egg cream controversy into two parts. The technique today, the actual recipe after the holiday.

I have been waiting for my friend Daniel Berman, of the FussyLITTLEblog, to return to the great egg cream controversy. His blog has gone dormant, so we’re going to do our best to pick up the burden.

According to Michael Isaacson, who seems to know something about Jewish culture, “A Genuine Brooklyn Eggcream is a cold, sweet, dark chocolatey drink with a creamy white head.” (Even the “white head” can lead to egg cream controversy, as we’ll see in a moment.*) We’re going to use that description as our goal, rather than doing the usual testing of different ingredients and methods which would kick our taster into hypoglycemia.

First controversy is what kind of chocolate syrup to use. The passionate will say you can only use Fox’s U-Bet Chocolate Syrup and further that you must use the seasonal “Kosher for Passover” version that substitutes cane sugar for corn syrup**. Dissenters will say that you should use Bosco, a product that predates U-Bet and therefore might be the original, or that the tastes of the cane sugar and corn syrup versions are identical, or even that you can use Hershey’s. We are going to stick with U-Bet.

The second egg cream controversy is the order and technique by which the ingredients are combined. The U-Bet folks themselves say you add syrup first, then milk (whole milk, never 2% or skim), then seltzer and stir them with a swirling motion using a long spoon so the bottom ingredients become distributed in the foam on top. Others insist you add the syrup last, and use the spoon to direct it into the glass by creating a channel through the foam in which you will pour it.

The source of the seltzer (never club soda or mineral water) also matters. In a Brooklyn soda fountain it would have been squirted into a glass with enough pressure to move the other ingredients around. If you are pouring from a store bought bottle (which must be absolutely fresh) or can (which some claim produces better results than the bottle, probably because it is opened on the spot so sure to have maximum fizz) you will have to find another way to duplicate the ingredients.

Reader Lynn Lavalette shared her own egg cream on the U-Bet Facebook page. Notice the perfect white foamy head!

We are going to go with Mr. Isaacson’s technique which has a couple of additional subtleties. The milk needs to be almost frozen, to the point that crystals are floating in it, to add creaminess to the finished product. And you need to “bounce the spoon up and down” at the bottom of the glass rather than stirring it. This will mix the syrup and seltzer at the bottom of the glass while the milk (being lighter weight, especially since it is near frozen) rises in a pristine white foam to the top.

Our recipe is here. Good luck!

*Here’s an easy variation which is also delicious and foolproof to make although by the purists it is not an egg cream because it does not have a pure white head. It was served up by Harvey Randall at the Jewish Food Festival in Schenectady NY and I can attest it is delicious. Combine one part Fox U-Bet, two parts cold whole milk and 8 parts seltzer in a wide mouth jar of a size that the ingredients will fill 2/3 of capacity. Seal and shake 20-30 seconds then “pour into small cups” to serve.

**OU Kosher, a company that does Kosher certification, has some background on why cane sugar is Kosher for Passover and corn syrup is not. It’s NOT because corn is Chometz, a fermented (or fermentable) grain which is not allowed in the house during Passover. Rather (thanks Daniel Berman for this correction) corn is Kitniyot, a separate category of prohibited items created at a later date. Of course, corn was unknown in Egypt at the time of the Old Testament.  But corn is a grain and it can indeed be fermented (ask any moonshiner) so a restriction reflecting the Chometz rules would seem appropriate.