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O slip me a slug from the wonderful mug

I'll cut a rug till I'm stuck in the jug

A slash of onion and a raw one, draw one.

Waiter, waiter, percolator!

I'm coming to the opinion that "a slash of onion and a raw one" is not, as has occasionally been suggested, diner's slang for an underdone burger. That would be obscure and there's nothing else about the song that's obscure. I think it's what people sometimes mixed with their ground coffee before percolating to get a specific flavour - a thin slice of onion and one raw egg - back in 1940.

Has anyone here made coffee that way or am I going to have to experiment. Or is there some thirties street slang I'm unfamiliar with. The jug in "I'll cut a rug till I'm stuck in the jug" is word-play on jug as in jail, after all.

I enjoy listening to the Ink Spots.

You have far too much time on your hands

On the contrary I'm hard-pressed to do all I have on my hands at the moment. I tossed that onto the forum as a brief aside.

You date a girl and find out later

She smells just like a percolator,

Her perfume was made right here on the grill -

They could percolate the ocean in Brazil.

And when their ham and eggs need savour,

Coffee ketchup gives them flavour.

Coffee pickles way outsell the dill.

Why, they put coffee in the coffee in Brazil.

spot;1400872 wrote: O slip me a slug from the wonderful mug

I'll cut a rug till I'm stuck in the jug

A slash of onion and a raw one, draw one.

Waiter, waiter, percolator!

I'm coming to the opinion that "a slash of onion and a raw one" is not, as has occasionally been suggested, diner's slang for an underdone burger. That would be obscure and there's nothing else about the song that's obscure. I think it's what people sometimes mixed with their ground coffee before percolating to get a specific flavour - a thin slice of onion and one raw egg - back in 1940.

Has anyone here made coffee that way or am I going to have to experiment. Or is there some thirties street slang I'm unfamiliar with. The jug in "I'll cut a rug till I'm stuck in the jug" is word-play on jug as in jail, after all.

I enjoy listening to the Ink Spots.


Well it would not have been obscure in 1940's

My grandfather often said a raw one when he ordered his rare steak at his favorite diner in the fifties.

Putting onion and egg in your percolator, however, would have gummed it up and made it unusable.

No self-respecting diner would allow THAT!

LarsMac;1400882 wrote: Well it would not have been obscure in 1940's

My grandfather often said a raw one when he ordered his rare steak at his favorite diner in the fifties.

Putting onion and egg in your percolator, however, would have gummed it up and made it unusable.

No self-respecting diner would allow THAT!


Putting onion and egg in your mug then pouring hot coffee over it might be edible.

Using egg white to clarify liquids is a standard process in French cookery.

Clarified coffee?

Hmmm. I dunno.

LarsMac;1400888 wrote: Clarified coffee?

Hmmm. I dunno.


The onion definitely adds a certain je ne sais quoi, I can feel the hairs on my chest growing already.

Sounded like it could be a good hangover meal.

YZGI;1400892 wrote: Sounded like it could be a good hangover meal.


I'm ready to concede in favour of the diner slang after Lars' grandfather tale. "A slash of onion and a raw one, draw one" for rare beefsteak with fried onion and a coffee on the side has me convinced, especially as it's followed by a call to the waiter to refill the emptied mug.

Funny you should mention that, YZGI. Some years back, I was working on a ranch in Western Kansas, and we went out drinking one night.

Next morning, breakfast was onions and Beer with raw egg in it.

LarsMac;1400895 wrote: Funny you should mention that, YZGI. Some years back, I was working on a ranch in Western Kansas, and we went out drinking one night.

Next morning, breakfast was onions and Beer with raw egg in it.


Thats the way we roll in Kansas.

Among the farmers and ranchers here in Colorado, Menudo is the hangover relief of choice.

LarsMac;1400897 wrote: Among the farmers and ranchers here in Colorado, Menudo is the hangover relief of choice.


The Mexicans eat a lot of that here also. I've never had the balls to try it yet. Have you?

LarsMac;1400897 wrote: Among the farmers and ranchers here in Colorado, Menudo is the hangover relief of choice.


YZGI;1400901 wrote: The Mexicans eat a lot of that here also. I've never had the balls to try it yet. Have you?


Absolutely.

I think you have to be seriously in your cups to be able to eat it.

"I'll cut a rug till I'm stuck in the jug."

I'm just throwing something out there but cutting a rug refers to dancing and stuck in a jug may mean being locked up.

So it may be a hangover cure to get over a heavy night's drinking/dancing and a night in the slammer

"I'll cut a rug..."

I found this:

In 1905 Tierney started selling miniature restaurants, thirty feet long, ten and a half feet wide (the maximum width permitted for railway shipment), with barrel roofs. By 1917—when Scott retired, grumbling that new and overweening customers were demanding a slice of onion with their egg sand wiches—Pop Tierney was turning ou t a diner a day.
americanheritage.com