How Would You Like Your Drink? Scrambled or Over Easy?
It may not carry the same fear-inducing firepower as challenging foods like tripe, brains, or other "variety meats," but there's an ingredient in occasional use behind the bar that sometimes rattles the unsuspecting customer: raw eggs.
Mixing eggs with liquor has a long heritage. A prime mover at colonial taverns was the flip, a drink typically made with a spirit such as rum, cream, and raw eggs (other ingredients such as hot beer or sherry were not uncommon); and while it's now thought of primarily as a holiday tipple, eggnog was once a fairly common concoction to call for across the bar. Egg whites became a staple ingredient in drinks such as the gin fizz and the whiskey sour, adding foam and body to the drink while slipping a little sustenance to the imbiber. And for sheer decadence there was the Knickerbein, composed of several liqueurs in a glass topped by the unbroken egg yolk and a mound of whipped egg white; the drinker was instructed to first inhale the froth, then drink the liquor while leaving the yolk untouched, and finally to gulp the remaining spirits while breaking the yolk in the mouth.
Changing tastes combined with salmonella scares helped drive raw eggs almost completely from the bar. But, as with the resurrection of offal at fine dining establishments, creative bartenders are rediscovering the benefits of raw eggs. Perhaps the best example of this is the ascendance of the Pisco Sour, a cocktail made with the South American brandy called pisco, sugar and fresh lemon juice; the drink is typically shaken hard with raw egg white to produce a foamy head, upon which is then dribbled a few drops of bitters. By dashing the bitters atop this stage of foam, instead of mixing it into the cocktail, the drinker is greeted by a complex aroma when taking a sip, and the drink takes on an additional dimension.
While raw eggs lack the gastronomic gravitas of foods such as Rocky Mountain oysters, they still inspire a few squeamish looks in a bar. What's your take? Do you hanker to have a whole egg served to you in a cocktail glass as part of a brandy flip, or do you think the closest your booze should be to your breakfast is when the waiter places your Bloody Mary next to your eggs Benedict?
About the author: Paul Clarke blogs about cocktails at The Cocktail Chronicles and writes regularly on spirits and cocktails for Imbibe magazine. He lives in Seattle, where he works as a writer and magazine editor.
Photograph from iStockphoto.com
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7 Comments:
Pisco Sour is my favorite cocktail, and the thing that made me curious enough to order it in the first place was the raw egg. It definitely adds a solid, savory dimension to an otherwise foofy cocktail. Eggs are a great addition to certain cocktail recipes, and I like to think the alcohol cuts down on the food poisoning risk!
(BTW, I think an authentic Pisco Sour's made with lime, not lemon-- "green lemon" in those there parts! And I add a dash of bitters to the mix itself as well as on top. Gives the drink a lovely hue).
Tactful_Cactus at 2:14PM on 10/10/07
i eat raw egg in many forms, no so much the whites, but the definitely yolks. yummy, and nutritious too. tobiko or uni sushi with a raw quail egg on top, on steak tartare, real mayo, whipped egg whites with confectioner's sugar, just to name a few awesome examples of yummy uses for raw eggs.
seyo at 3:39PM on 10/10/07
a taiwanese friend told me that they crack a raw egg into a glass of milk and drink up the whole thing for breakfast. apparently it's good for the skin!
icelemontee at 8:34AM on 10/11/07
I have noticed on some cocktail menus, the bartenders are using powdered egg white in their sours, fizzs and what have you. I wonder if it has the same properties as true egg white when shaken in a drink? Those squemish about using egg in a drink can also try the pasteurized eggs that are now at market.
TMFIII at 10:17AM on 10/11/07
Luckily there is pretty much a zero chance of getting samonella from eggs in my province (especially if you wash the shells before breaking them), so we make gin fizzes at home occasionally. Have never had a problem, and they are so pretty!
Peasantwench at 10:38AM on 10/11/07
Every Thanksgiving my father makes eggnog, then lets it sit, loosely covered, in the back of a closet until Christmas: http://seriouslygood.kdweeks.com/2003/11/eggnog.html
Kevin at 2:58PM on 10/11/07
The Ramos Gin Fizz is one of my favorite cocktails, and fear of eggs hasn't stopped me yet.
July at 4:37PM on 10/15/07