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The Memphis
Mix four tablespoonfuls of chocolate syrup and four tablespoonfuls of rich cream. Add a little soda water and put in two tablespoonfuls of vanilla ice cream, and fill up the glass with soda water, using the syphon. Put a spoonful of whipped cream on top.
A soda-fountain formula, written for a dispenser working behind a marble counter with a syrup pump in one hand and a syphon in the other. It scales to one tall glass.
- MeasuresA tablespoon is a half fluid ounce, so four tablespoonfuls of syrup is about 1/4 cup, as is the cream. Two tablespoonfuls of ice cream is nearer a small scoop than a full one.
- The glassThe text says only to fill up the glass; a tall soda glass is the obvious vessel, and something with room to spare, since the whipped cream needs somewhere to sit once the syphon charge foams up.
- The hinge: soda in two stagesThe "little soda water" added before the ice cream is not filler; it loosens the syrup and cream into a single mixture, which is easier to do before the ice cream chills everything down.
- Rich creamRead this as heavy or whipping cream at 36 percent fat. Half-and-half will thin the drink and let the carbonation break it up.
- Chocolate syrupPeriod fountain syrup was typically cooked from cocoa, sugar and water. If a commercial syrup makes the glass sweeter than you want, reduce it toward three tablespoonfuls.
- The syphonA charged syphon delivers a hard, narrow jet, which is what draws the foam up. A bottle of seltzer poured gently gives a flatter drink; pour down the centre with some force, or use a soda syphon or carbonating machine.
- ServingOne drink, and it will not wait. Serve with a long spoon and a straw the moment the whipped cream goes on, before the foam collapses into the cream layer.
Books of this kind appeared in numbers in the years around national and local Prohibition, when the soda fountain took over some of the social ground the saloon had held. Fountain drinks were named after cities, hotels and colleges as a matter of course, and a formula called The Memphis tells you little about Tennessee and much about a trade that needed a fresh name for every small variation on chocolate, cream and carbonated water. What distinguishes this one from a plain chocolate soda is the double dose of dairy, cream stirred into the syrup and ice cream floated after, which is the difference between a soda and a chocolate ice cream soda. Druggists dispensed these from the same counters where they sold medicine, which may be why so many of the recipes read like compounding instructions rather than cookery.