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The Hermitage
Mix one tablespoonful of chopped walnuts with three tablespoonfuls of maple syrup, and pour over a dishful of peach or vanilla ice cream.
A three-ingredient soda-fountain sundae that needs no adjustment beyond knowing what the proportions were meant to build. The whole thing is one serving.
- YieldAs written this dresses a single dish of ice cream. Scale by the serving rather than mixing a large batch, since the walnuts soften in the syrup if the mixture is left to stand.
- Maple syrupThree tablespoons is a generous pour by modern habit. Maple-flavored blends and maple-and-cane compounds were sold as "maple syrup" in this period, so the original need not have meant pure syrup. A pure dark syrup (formerly Grade B) stands up best against the ice cream; with a delicate amber syrup you may want the full amount.
- The walnutsChop them fine enough to spoon up with the ice cream rather than crushing them. Toasting them dry for five to six minutes at 350F is not in the original but sharpens the flavor against the sweetness of the syrup.
- Temperature contrastRoom-temperature syrup over hard-frozen ice cream gives the sharpest contrast: chilling the syrup flattens the effect, warming it melts the base. Mix the nuts and syrup in advance, leave the bowl on the counter, and take the ice cream straight from the freezer.
- Peach ice creamCommercial peach ice cream is less common now, and modern versions tend to be sweeter. Vanilla is the safer partner for this much maple.
On Uncle Sam's Water Wagon belongs to the flood of books published as national Prohibition arrived, offering fountain drinks, punches and sundaes — its subtitle promises recipes that can be made at home. Soda fountains had been growing for decades alongside the drugstore trade, and 1919 and 1920 are usually credited with turning them into the commercial heirs of the saloon. Sundaes in collections of this kind are commonly given proper names, The Hermitage here; Hermitage was in circulation as both a Rhône wine and a Kentucky whiskey brand, though whether either was in mind is not recorded. Maple and walnut was a familiar flavor pairing of the period.