In chilly and flu season, many flip to residence treatments: tea, ginger, sizzling soup. From Japanese Europe, there’s gogl-mogl — a milk/yolk/honey concoction each beloved and dreaded.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
For so long as individuals have had the sniffles, they’ve had residence treatments. And for individuals with roots in Japanese Europe, a kind of treatments is gogl-mogl. Deena Prichep experiences it is the stuff of childhood reminiscences, each good and unhealthy.
DEENA PRICHEP, BYLINE: It is exhausting to pinpoint the primary look of gogl-mogl.
EVE JOCHNOWITZ: It appears to be a kind of issues like rooster soup. It is all the time been there.
PRICHEP: Eve Jochnowitz is a Yiddish trainer who researches the historical past of Jewish meals.
JOCHNOWITZ: They start with grinding up the sugar or some honey, mixing it with the egg yolks after which beating in sizzling milk.
PRICHEP: There are barely totally different variations of this recipe. Typically a shot of brandy or slivovitz was thrown in, often some chocolate. And Jochnowitz says it was discovered throughout Europe.
JOCHNOWITZ: From Czechoslovakia within the west, so far as the borders of the Russian Empire within the east, I’d say.
PRICHEP: And with immigration, gogl-mogl. made its means into America. The late New York Metropolis mayor Ed Koch gave out his model at a press convention in 1987.
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ED KOCH: My suggestion is a minimal – in the event you actually wish to get cracking on the chilly – a minimal of three gogl-mogls a day.
PRICHEP: In a latest interview on WHYY’s Contemporary Air, singer Barbra Streisand recalled her mom recommending it after her first actual gig.
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BARBRA STREISAND: The very first thing she stated, I keep in mind, was your voice wants eggs. It’s important to use a gogl-mogl ‘trigger your voice must be stronger.
PRICHEP: Now, some individuals have candy reminiscences of fogeys and grandparents bringing a gogl-mogl to their sickbed, however lots of people dreaded it, particularly when the egg was uncooked, like within the gogl-mogl Barbra Streisand’s mom made.
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STREISAND: Which I might by no means swallow – ugh.
PRICHEP: This concoction has develop into extra of a reminiscence, doubtless as a result of rise of over-the-counter medicines and decreasing tolerance for giving uncooked eggs and alcohol to youngsters. Based on Michal Korkosz, a meals author in Poland, you’ll be able to nonetheless discover gogl-mogl in Japanese Europe, however as a dessert. And even then it is seen as a relic of the previous.
MICHAL KORKOSZ: Through the Communist occasions, the place there was no candy treats within the shops, my mom, she would make the gogl-mogl at residence.
PRICHEP: The Polish model is extra like an egg foam, a cloud of simply whipped eggs and sugar, like the start of a sponge cake.
KORKOSZ: It is so fluffy. It is so creamy. It has its richness.
PRICHEP: However Korkosz says generally when somebody was sick, his grandmother would pour in just a little sizzling milk, turning this dessert right into a treatment.
KORKOSZ: Candy deal with however in some way milk makes it a medication, proper (laughter)?
PRICHEP: Which raises the query, does gogl-mogl really do something medicinally? Dr. Diane Pappas is a pediatrician on the College of Virginia who researches cough administration in youngsters. She says, meh.
DIANE PAPPAS: We haven’t any actually good proof that honey does a complete lot for a cough. There’s a number of research that say it’d assist just a little bit. They are not nice high quality, nevertheless it’s actually all we’ve.
PRICHEP: Pappas says if you’d like a gogl-mogl, go for it. Energy and heat fluids all the time assist. And so long as the egg is absolutely cooked and you are not giving honey to infants, it is high quality.
PAPPAS: I do not know that there are downsides until you place the alcohol in it. I do not know that there is a enormous upside both.
PRICHEP: Pappas says whereas she will’t ethically prescribe placebos, that have an effect on can play a task in all types of issues individuals take, hoping to really feel higher. And Polish meals author Michal Korkosz says there’s additionally the consolation of custom.
KORKOSZ: I all the time examine dishes from our childhood as like a heat blanket. They’re, like, so cozy, and they’re so scrumptious. They reminds you while you have been the happiest in your life.
PRICHEP: Which often is the excellent factor while you’re feeling crummy.
For NPR Information, I am Deena Prichep.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “DON’T RAIN ON MY PARADE”)
STREISAND: (Singing) Do not inform me to not stay. Simply sit and putter.
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