In flu season, many flip to dwelling treatments. From Japanese Europe, there’s gogl-mogl – a milk/yolk/honey concoction each liked and dreaded. (Story first aired on Morning Version on November 30, 2023.)
ASMA KHALID, HOST:
So long as the sniffles have existed, so have dwelling treatments for them. For folks with roots in Japanese Europe, a kind of treatments is called gogl-mogl. As Deena Prichep studies, it is the stuff of childhood reminiscences, each good and dangerous.
DEENA PRICHEP, BYLINE: It is arduous to pinpoint the primary look of gogl-mogl.
EVE JOCHNOWITZ: It appears to be a kind of issues like hen soup. It is at all times been there.
PRICHEP: Eve Jochnowitz is a Yiddish instructor 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 scorching 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 – when you actually wish to get cracking on the chilly – a minimal of three gogl-mogls a day.
(LAUGHTER)
PRICHEP: In a current interview on WHYY’s Recent Air, singer Barbra Streisand recalled her mom recommending it after her first actual gig.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
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 folks 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.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
STREISAND: Which I might by no means swallow – ugh.
PRICHEP: This concoction has turn into extra of a reminiscence, possible because of the rise of over-the-counter medicines and reducing 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: In the course of the Communist instances, the place there was no candy treats within the shops, my mom – she would make the gogl-mogl at dwelling.
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 typically when somebody was sick, his grandmother would pour in a bit of scorching milk, turning this dessert right into a treatment.
KORKOSZ: Candy deal with however by some means, milk makes it a medication, proper (laughter)?
PRICHEP: Which raises the query, does gogl-mogl truly do something medicinally? Dr. Diane Pappas is a pediatrician on the College of Virginia who researches cough administration in children. She says, meh.
DIANE PAPPAS: We have no actually good proof that honey does a complete lot for a cough. There’s a number of research that say it’d assist a bit of bit. They are not nice high quality, nevertheless it’s actually all we now have.
PRICHEP: Pappas says if you would like a gogl-mogl, go for it. Energy and heat fluids at all times assist. And so long as the egg is totally cooked and you are not giving honey to infants, it is positive.
PAPPAS: I do not know that there are downsides until you set the alcohol in it. I do not know that there is a enormous upside both.
PRICHEP: Pappas says whereas she will be able to’t ethically prescribe placebos, that have an effect on can play a task in all kinds of issues folks take, hoping to really feel higher. And Polish meals author Michal Korkosz says there’s additionally the consolation of custom.
KORKOSZ: I at all times evaluate dishes from our childhood as like a heat blanket. They’re, like, so cozy, and they’re so scrumptious. They reminds you whenever you have been the happiest in your life.
PRICHEP: Which will be the excellent factor whenever you’re feeling crummy.
For NPR Information, I am Deena Prichep.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “HOME REMEDY”)
ADRIENNE YOUNG: (Singing) It is a dwelling treatment whenever you put your arms round me. I do know the working day is thru. inform me to not stay. Simply sit and putter.
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