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The Harlem
Put into a shaker four tablespoonfuls of vanilla syrup and one tablespoonful of orange syrup. Shake well with a little chopped ice. Strain into a glass, add a ladleful of ice cream and a spoonful of whipped cream.
A soda-fountain drink from the first months of national Prohibition, built on bottled flavoring syrups that the home cook now has to make. Nothing here is difficult; the whole trick is getting the syrups thick enough that four tablespoons carry the drink.
- Fountain syrup, not coffee syrupVanilla syrup at a fountain of this period was a heavy sugar syrup, considerably denser than a modern coffee-bar syrup, flavored with vanilla extract. Thin modern syrups will leave the glass watery and underflavored; boil your own down and cool it before using.
- Orange syrupMade the same way, with fresh orange juice and a little grated zest in place of most of the water. Bottled orange drink concentrate is not a substitute.
- Chopped iceCrushed or cracked ice, not cubes. It chills and slightly dilutes the syrup in the few seconds of shaking, which is the point; cubes will barely touch it.
- A ladlefulThe fountain ice-cream ladle held about two ounces, the equivalent of a modern #16 scoop or a generous quarter cup. One scoop, not two.
- The missing liquidFive tablespoons of syrup and a scoop of ice cream fill a very small glass. The dispenser may well have topped the glass with carbonated water, though the recipe does not say so; the drink takes it well.
- Whipped creamWhip it barely to soft peaks and leave it unsweetened. The syrups are already sweet, and stiff sweetened cream sits on top like a lid instead of folding into the drink.
- YieldOne glass; roughly eight ounces if soda water is added. Scale by multiplying the syrups; shake no more than two servings at a time.
This comes from a 1919 collection of soft drinks published on the eve of national Prohibition that October and took effect on 17 January 1920. The trade moved into soda fountains and needed a repertoire in a hurry. Fountain drinks were often named for cities, hotels and neighborhoods rather than their contents, which is why a vanilla-and-orange ice cream drink is called The Harlem. The reliance on bottled flavoring syrups reflects a real trade: by this date syrup houses supplied druggists and fountains with stock flavors, and a recipe book of this kind was written for a dispenser standing in front of a rack of them, not for a home kitchen.