Drink Your Big Black Cow.....

"Drink your big black cow and get out of here." from Steely Dan's Black Cow
Today is National Black Cow Day. Whooohoo!

Hmmm.... I bet some of you are wondering.."What is a Black Cow?"

Okay, I kinda wondered that myself. I figured it wasn't an actual black cow 'cause why would we have a holiday for it. Then I thought, well , maybe a black cow is a ice cream float made with coke instead of ginger ale. Don't know why that came to me. Turns out I'm almost right.

According to my friends at Wiki:

The origin of the name "black cow" has always been of interest to food and beverage experts and allegedly dates to August 1893 in Cripple Creek, Colorado. The only source of this story is the great-grand-nephew of Frank J. Wisner, who has popularized it through advertising on his soft drink products and website. Wisner, owner of the Cripple Creek Cow Mountain Gold Mining Company, had been producing a line of soda waters for the citizens of the then-booming Cripple Creek gold mining district. He had been trying to create a special drink for the children of Cripple Creek and came up with an idea while staring out at his properties on Cow Mountain on a moonlit night.
The full moon's glow on the snow capped Cow Mountain reminded him of a dollop of vanilla ice cream floating on top of his blackened Cow Mountain. As he told the story later, he was inspired by this view to hurry back to his bar and add a big scoop of vanilla ice cream to the one soda water he produced that the children of Cripple Creek seemed to like best - Myers Avenue Red root beer - and served it the very next day. The drink was an instant hit. Originally named "Black Cow Mountain", the local children shortened this to "black cow". Wisner was known to say many times in his later years that if he had a nickel for every time someone ordered a black cow, he'd have been a rich man.

Sooo, apparently a Black Cow is what most of refer to as a Root Beer Float which is basically root beer and vanilla ice cream. I have also heard a root beer float referred to as a Brown Cow.
While surfing the net for info on the Black Cow I found lots of different recipes. The one below sounds delicious! Think I'll go make one.

TTFN, I have to go buy ice cream....yum!!


A Black Cow Float

2 scoops vanilla ice cream
10 oz coke
1 tbsp chocolate syrup
1 1/2 oz whipped cream
maraschino cherry

Pour coke over ice cream and chocolate syrup in a fountain glass.
Garnish with whipped cream and a maraschino cherry.
Serve with a straw and a long spoon.

Variation: For a Brown Cow, use root beer in the place of coke.
recipe found at homebakedmemories.com