The Devon
Put a slice of pineapple in the center of a plate, cover with vanilla ice cream, and add whipped cream. Decorate with a cherry.
A soda-fountain plate assembly rather than a cooked dish; the only real work is in the components and the order they go down.
- The pineappleCanned pineapple in syrup would have been the usual fountain article, and it still suits: fresh rings are firmer and more acidic. Drain the slice well or the plate floods.
- Why a plate, not a dishThe recipe calls for a plate, and the flat arrangement depends on it: the ring stays visible under the ice cream. A shallow coupe works; a tall glass defeats the arrangement entirely.
- Ice cream quantityOne good scoop, about a half cup, sits on a standard pineapple ring without hiding it. Temper the ice cream a couple of minutes so it domes rather than shatters.
- Whipped creamCream whipped to soft peaks with a spoonful of sugar, piped or spooned. Unsweetened cream tastes thin against the pineapple syrup.
- The cherryThe period cherry is a maraschino — a bleached, dyed and sugar-soaked cherry, not the fresh fruit. Any jarred cocktail cherry stands in.
- YieldOne serving. Assemble to order; the plate does not hold.
Sundaes named for hotels, streets and towns were a fountain convention: the same three or four components rearranged, each combination given a proprietary name so a menu could list dozens of items from one freezer and one bottle of syrup. The pineapple-and-cherry pairing was cheap and reliable once canned Hawaiian pineapple became a staple of American grocery shelves in the early twentieth century, and the maraschino cherry — by then a domestically produced, brine-cured and dyed article rather than the Italian liqueur-steeped original — supplied the single spot of color a menu could promise.