(Recipe For) Cream Soda

A recipe for cream soda—written by E. M. Sheldon and published in Michigan Farmer in 1852—called for water, cream of tartar (tartaric acid), Epsom salts, sugar, egg, and milk, to be mixed, then heated, and when cool mixed with water and a quarter teaspoonful of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) to make an effervescent drink. It was suggested as a temperance drink preferable to those of "Uncle Bacchus" and in compliance with the recently introduced Maine law.**Alexander C. Howell, of Vienna, New Jersey, was granted a patent for "cream soda-water" on June 27, 1865.