The Cheshire
Place a ladleful of strawberry ice cream in a sundae glass, and cover with crushed strawberries. A little whipped cream and a whole strawberry may be added.
A fountain formula rather than a kitchen recipe: three components, assembled to order. The only real work is in the crushed strawberries, which at a soda fountain were a standing preparation and not simply mashed fresh fruit.
- What "crushed strawberries" meantAt a fountain this generally meant a sugared fruit crush kept ready at the counter rather than fruit mashed to order: berries mashed with sugar and left until syrupy. Fresh unsweetened mashed berries will taste thin and watery against the ice cream.
- A ladlefulFountain ice-cream dishers commonly ran around No. 16 to No. 20, i.e. roughly 1½ to 2 fluid ounces — a single scoop, not two. The recipe gives no proportion of ice cream to fruit.
- The sundae glassA tulip or footed sundae glass; the book does not specify a size, and such glasses commonly ran anywhere from about 5 to 8 ounces.
- Whipped creamWhip only to the stage where it just holds a shape, and sweeten lightly or not at all; the fruit crush carries the sugar. Fountain cream was often soft-whipped and sometimes pressed through a bag, though the recipe itself says nothing of this.
- Temperature matters more than anythingTemperature matters -- Serve the fruit cold and the glass chilled. A room-temperature crush poured over ice cream at scooping temperature will melt it fast; crushed fruit at a fountain was generally held in a cooled compartment at the counter.
- YieldOne glass, one person. Multiply as needed; nothing here benefits from being made ahead except the sugared berries.
Named sundaes were a house's stock in trade, and such titles were often largely decorative: nothing in this entry connects "The Cheshire" to the English county or its cheese. The sundae itself is often traced to the 1890s, arising where local ordinance or custom discouraged the sale of soda water on Sundays, leaving the fountain to serve ice cream and syrup without the fizz; the spelling shift to "sundae" is usually explained as a gesture toward not naming the Sabbath outright. Whether or not that account is exact, the form it produced — ice cream, a fruit or syrup dressing, a garnish — is precisely what this entry describes.