The Espana
Place a ladleful of vanilla ice cream in a sherbet glass. Cover with chopped figs and a large spoonful of whipped cream. Decorate with a cherry and serve with a Nabisco cracker.
A soda-fountain assembly rather than a cooked dish, so the whole of it rests on the figs and the glass. Both need a word of explanation.
- Nabisco cracker"Nabisco" began as the name of a product rather than a shorthand for the company: the National Biscuit Company's Nabisco Sugar Wafer, a thin sweet wafer. A crisp rolled sugar wafer or a pirouette cookie is the likelier match than a soda cracker.
- A ladlefulFountain ice-cream ladles of the period seem to have run in the region of 2 to 3 fluid ounces, so figure one scoop, about 1/4 to 1/3 cup, per glass.
- The sherbet glassA footed, stemmed glass, typically small, on the order of 4 to 6 ounces. A small coupe or champagne saucer gives a workable proportion of cream to fruit.
- The figsProbably dried figs, though the recipe does not say. If using dried, stem them, chop fine, and soften 10 minutes in warm water, orange juice or a little syrup, then drain well; unsoftened dried figs turn leathery against cold ice cream. Fresh figs work and need no soaking.
- Whipped creamWhip to soft peaks and sweeten lightly, roughly a teaspoon of sugar per half cup of heavy cream. Whip it just before serving; it will weep within a few minutes on the ice cream.
- The cherryA maraschino cherry, stem on if you have them. Period maraschinos were often tinted with dyes no longer permitted, but any current jarred cherry does the same job.
- Order of assemblyBuild it in the order given and serve at once; the cracker is served alongside, and is best added at the last moment or it goes soft.
- YieldThe quantities describe one glass. Scale by the number of servings.
This comes from a collection of soda-fountain and household drink recipes, and the fountain is why a sundae sits in a book about beverages at all: druggists and confectioners sold ices and sundaes across the same marble counter as phosphates and egg creams, and the recipe books served both. The names of fountain sundaes are often said to have been largely decorative, and "The Espana" may signal nothing more than the figs. Naming a garnish after a brand was likewise ordinary practice; National Biscuit Company wafers were a fountain staple by this date, and calling for them by name in print did the company no harm.