Goldenade, Lemon and Egg Yolk Soda
Reader ratingsAn egg yolk shaken with powdered sugar, fresh lemon juice and ice, then filled with soda and poured back and forth: the alcohol-free Goldenade of an 1897 soda fountain manual.
- Recipe makes
- 1 drink, about 12 fl oz
- Prep
- Total
Goldenade in a tall soda glass, with the shaker and half a lemon.
The story behind the recipe
Goldenade is an egg yolk, a lemon and sugar, shaken with ice and lightened with soda water, and in A. Emil Hiss’s Standard Manual of Soda and Other Beverages (1897) it sits among the fountain’s egg drinks. The manual was written for druggists and spends pages on headache salts and tonics; Goldenade belongs to the other side of the book, a sweet-and-sour soda ordered for its taste.
Glass to shaker and back
The trick comes near the end of Hiss’s method. After the soda goes in, the drink is poured “from glass to shaker and back several times” before it is strained into the tall glass it is served in. The pouring mixes the yolk through the fizzing water and builds a head without trapping gas in a closed shaker. The yolk gives the drink its golden color and some body under the lemon, and powdered sugar dissolves quickly in the cold. Hiss gives four tablespoonfuls, which makes a sweet glass; cut it to three if you like it sharper.
Saxe’s New Guide of 1894 spells it Golden Ade and swaps the lemon and soda for Catawba syrup and milk. Hiss gives the milk version as well, with “other syrups” allowed in place of the Catawba, but the Catawba itself was a wine syrup, which keeps it off an alcohol-free table. The lemon and soda card here has no alcohol in it. For how the soda fountain sat between the pharmacy and the candy counter, read Was the Soda Fountain a Pharmacy?
Read more about this recipe
The egg
The egg stays raw: use a pasteurized egg in the US, or a British Lion egg in the UK. The US Food and Drug Administration advises that any dish served with raw egg be made with eggs treated to destroy Salmonella, or with pasteurized egg products.
A whole egg shaken with lemon syrup and acid phosphate makes the fountain’s Lemon Egg Phosphate, the same idea from a 1920 book.
Sugar, powder........tablespoonfuls 4
Juice of 1 lemon, ...
Recipe makes: 1 drink, about 12 fl oz
Ingredients
For 1 drink, about 12 fl oz. Quantities are shown as written.
Quantities as written here, for 1 drink, about 12 fl oz.
- Powdered sugar4 tbsp
- Fresh lemon juice3 tbsp
- Pasteurized egg yolk1
- Crushed ice1/3 cup
- Soda water, very cold6 fl oz
Measurement notes
Ingredients as written here
- 4 tbsp powdered sugar
- 3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 pasteurized egg yolk
- 1/3 cup crushed ice
- 6 fl oz soda water, very cold
Equipment
Cocktail shaker and strainer
Tall soda glass, about 12 fl oz
Instructions
Put the powdered sugar, fresh lemon juice, pasteurized egg yolk and crushed ice in a cocktail shaker. Close it and shake hard for about 15 seconds, until the yolk is frothy and the sugar has dissolved.
Open the shaker and pour in the very cold soda water.
Pour the drink from the shaker into the glass and back into the shaker, two or three times, to mix it and raise a head. Leave the shaker open; never seal soda water in a closed shaker.
Strain into a tall 12 fl oz glass and serve at once.
Nutrition
180calories per serving
- Recipe makes
- 1 drink, about 12 fl oz
Estimated from USDA FoodData Central values for powdered sugar, lemon juice and egg yolk, for one drink.
Recipe notes
When adjusting quantities
The ingredients are for one glass; multiply them by the number of drinks and shake each one separately.
Notes
Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the batch.
Hiss’s “Shaved or cracked ice … about oz. 2” is about 1/3 cup of crushed ice. He gives no amount of soda water, only enough to fill the 12-ounce glass after straining; 6 fl oz does that here.
Four level US tablespoons of powdered sugar weigh about 30 g. Spoons of 1897 were not standardized, so this is our reading of his amount.
A medium lemon gives about 2 to 3 tablespoons of juice. Use 3 for Hiss’s “juice of 1 lemon”; if your lemon is small, add a little more juice.
Hiss’s Golden Fizz is the same drink with “a small amount of ginger” added; a teaspoon of ginger syrup is our way to try it.
Scaling changes the ingredients only; glassware, ice and timings need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.
Sources and attribution
A. Emil Hiss, The Standard Manual of Soda and Other Beverages (Chicago: G. P. Engelhard & Co., 1897), p. 116, “Goldenade”
See the original pages (scan at Internet Archive) (opens in a new tab)
Recipe details
- Drink
- Alcohol-free
- Drink family
- Sodas & Soft Drinks
- Region
- American
- Era
- 19th century
- Source decade
- 1890s
- Base
- Fruit & juice
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Occasion
- Dry January
- Season
- Summer