The Essex
Pour four tablespoonfuls of raspberry syrup over a dishful of peach ice cream. A little whipped cream or marshmallow cream may be added.
A soda-fountain assembly rather than a cooked dish; the only real questions are quantity and what the two "creams" meant behind the counter.
- A dishfulFountain sundae dishes of the period were small by modern habit, and a dishful would likely have been a couple of modest scoops. Four tablespoons of syrup over that is a quarter cup, which is generous — start with two and add more if the peach flavour is not being crowded out.
- Raspberry syrupNot the thin fruit-flavoured pump syrup sold for coffee. Fountain syrup was a heavy sweet syrup, thicker and much sweeter than a modern coffee syrup. A good seedless raspberry preserve loosened with a spoonful of water is the closest quick substitute.
- Peach ice creamPeriod peach ice cream was made from fresh or canned fruit. Any peach ice cream works; a lighter, fruitier one holds up better under this much syrup.
- Marshmallow creamAt the fountain this meant a marshmallow syrup or crème, close to what is sold today as marshmallow fluff, sometimes thinned with a little hot water so it could be poured. Use it warm enough to pour but not hot enough to melt the ice cream on contact.
- Whipped creamKeep it barely sweetened, since the syrup carries the sugar. Whip to soft peaks with no more than a teaspoon of sugar per cup of cream, or the sundae turns cloying.
- Order of assemblySyrup goes over the ice cream, cream goes on top of the syrup. Reversing it gives a white cap with a hidden pool of raspberry at the bottom of the dish, which is not what the fountain was selling.
- YieldOne sundae. Scale by the dish rather than by the batch; the syrup should be poured to order so it does not set into the ice cream.
This comes from a Prohibition-era drink book, and the timing explains its existence: as the saloon closed, the soda fountain expanded to fill the space, and druggists and confectioners needed printed formulas for the hundreds of named sundaes and sodas their customers expected. Names like The Essex were house branding. Peach and raspberry is a pairing the fountain trade rendered as a scoop, a pour and a spoonful of marshmallow.