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The Mount Vernon
Into a glass nearly filled with rich milk put three tablespoonfuls of chocolate syrup and a ladleful of chocolate ice cream. Stir well and add a spoonful of whipped cream colored with caramel. Serve with a spoon.
A soda-fountain drink rather than anything to do with a saucepan of cocoa, despite the chapter heading. It comes together in a minute and falls apart almost as fast, so assemble it in the glass you intend to serve it in.
- The glassFountain glasses of the period varied, commonly somewhere in the 8 to 12 ounce range. The recipe says the glass is "nearly filled" with milk; if you want the ice cream and cream to sit without overflowing, pour rather less than that.
- Rich milkProbably whole, unskimmed milk, possibly with a little cream added. Whole milk with a tablespoon of heavy cream is a reasonable approximation.
- A ladlefulRoughly one modest scoop of ice cream; fountain portions varied.
- Chocolate syrupFountain syrup was generally cocoa or chocolate cooked with sugar and water; consistency and sweetness varied from house to house. Any good bottled chocolate syrup works; taste before adding all three tablespoons if yours is very sweet.
- Caramel, not caramel sauceThe coloring called for is burnt-sugar caramel, sugar cooked dark and dissolved in a little water, used at the fountain for tint. A few drops tinted the cream tan; too much makes it bitter. Cooled dark caramel or a drop of caramel coloring gives the same effect.
- Whipped creamWhip the cream stiff. Whether fountain cream was sweetened varied; here the syrup already carries plenty of sugar. Whip it before you build the drink.
- Stir, then topThe recipe adds syrup and ice cream together and stirs after; if you would rather not leave syrup sitting at the bottom, stir it into the milk before the ice cream goes in.
- Yield and servingOne glass. The spoon is not optional, as the ice cream will not come up a straw; serve at once, while the cream still holds its shape.
This belongs to the American soda fountain in the months when it was suddenly the only bar in town. Wartime restrictions and then, in time, national Prohibition pushed druggists and confectioners to expand their drink lists, and collections of several hundred non-alcoholic recipes were published to supply them. Fountains are often said to have named drinks after presidents, monuments and hotels, and Mount Vernon, Washington's estate on the Potomac, was exactly the sort of patriotic label a fountain might reach for. The drink itself is a milkshake in all but the mechanical mixing: the electric drink mixer was in use by then, but plenty of fountain formulas still said stir well and let the ice cream sit whole in the glass.