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In flu season, many flip to residence treatments. From Eastern Europe, there’s gogl-mogl – a milk/yolk/honey concoction each cherished and dreaded. (Story first aired on Morning Edition on November 30, 2023.)
ASMA KHALID, HOST:
As lengthy because the sniffles have existed, so have residence treatments for them. For individuals with roots in Eastern Europe, a type of treatments is named gogl-mogl. As Deena Prichep studies, it is the stuff of childhood reminiscences, each good and unhealthy.
DEENA PRICHEP, BYLINE: It’s exhausting to pinpoint the primary look of gogl-mogl.
EVE JOCHNOWITZ: It appears to be a type of issues like rooster soup. It’s 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 completely different variations of this recipe. Sometimes a shot of brandy or slivovitz was thrown in, sometimes 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 might say.
PRICHEP: And with immigration, gogl-mogl made its approach into America. The late New York City mayor Ed Koch gave out his model at a press convention in 1987.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ED KOCH: My suggestion is a minimal – for those who actually wish to get cracking on the chilly – a minimal of three gogl-mogls a day.
(LAUGHTER)
PRICHEP: In a latest interview on WHYY’s Fresh 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. You have to make use of a gogl-mogl ‘trigger your voice must be stronger.
PRICHEP: Now, some individuals have candy reminiscences of oldsters 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 change 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. According to Michal Korkosz, a meals author in Poland, you’ll be able to nonetheless discover gogl-mogl in Eastern Europe however as a dessert. And even then it is seen as a relic of the previous.
MICHAL KORKOSZ: During the Communist instances, 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’s so fluffy. It’s so creamy. It has its richness.
PRICHEP: But Korkosz says generally when somebody was sick, his grandmother would pour in a little bit sizzling milk, turning this dessert right into a treatment.
KORKOSZ: Sweet deal with however someway, 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 University of Virginia who researches cough administration in youngsters. She says, meh.
DIANE PAPPAS: We have no actually good proof that honey does an entire lot for a cough. There’s a couple of research that say it’d assist a little bit bit. They’re not nice high quality, but it surely’s actually all we’ve got.
PRICHEP: Pappas says in order for you a gogl-mogl, go for it. Calories 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 effective.
PAPPAS: I do not know that there are downsides except you set the alcohol in it. I do not know that there is a big upside both.
PRICHEP: Pappas says whereas she will’t ethically prescribe placebos, that have an effect on can play a job 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 had been the happiest in your life.
PRICHEP: Which often is the good factor while you’re feeling crummy.
For NPR News, I’m Deena Prichep.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “HOME REMEDY”)
ADRIENNE YOUNG: (Singing) It’s a house treatment while you put your arms round me. I do know the working day is thru. inform me to not stay. Just sit and putter.
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