The Berkeley
Fill sherbet glass nearly full of pineapple ice, and pour over two tablespoonfuls of shredded pineapple.
A two-line soda-fountain formula that assumes you already have a tub of pineapple ice in the cabinet. The only real work is the ice itself.
- Pineapple ice, not sorbetA fountain "ice" of this period was a water ice: fruit juice or pulp, sugar syrup and water, churned without dairy or egg. Modern pineapple sorbet is the closest equivalent; anything labelled sherbet today usually contains milk and will read as a different dessert.
- Sherbet glassThe standard fountain sherbet or champagne-saucer glass held about 5 to 6 ounces, so "nearly full" is roughly two small scoops. Chill the glass first or the ice will slump before it reaches the table.
- Shredded pineappleMost likely canned pineapple in syrup, pulled into threads rather than diced, serving as topping and sauce at once. Crushed pineapple, drained of most of its syrup and stirred back with a spoonful of it, gives the same effect; fresh pineapple is drier and sharper and wants a little sugar.
- Fresh pineapple and gelatinIf you set out to make the ice from fresh juice and your ice recipe calls for gelatin, note that raw pineapple contains bromelain, which prevents gelatin from setting; only cooked or canned juice will work.
- Temper before servingWater ices freeze harder than dairy ice cream because there is no fat to soften them. Five minutes out of the freezer makes the difference between scooping and chiselling.
- YieldOne glass, one person. Allow roughly 1/2 to 2/3 cup of ice (to fill the 5-6 oz glass nearly full) and 2 tablespoons of pineapple per serving when scaling up for a crowd.
Books like this one belong to the era when Prohibition — ratified in January 1919 and in effect from January 1920 — turned every hotel bar into a potential soda fountain and drink manuals were rewritten for a dry trade. Named sundaes were the fountain's answer to named cocktails: a house could put its own label on a combination of two or three stock ingredients, and the names ran to hotels, streets, colleges and resorts, which is very likely where a "Berkeley" comes from. Pineapple was a fountain staple because it arrived already canned in syrup and kept indefinitely behind the counter, and the whole logic of the recipe is that of a working soda jerk: a scoop from the cabinet, a ladle from the crock, no cooking at all.