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The Newcastle
Mix one tablespoonful of orange marmalade to two tablespoonfuls of marshmallow cream, and pour over vanilla ice cream.
A two-ingredient fountain sauce, and the only thing that can go wrong is the texture. Marshmallow cream out of the jar is stiffer than the soda-fountain product this was written for.
- Marshmallow creamFountain marshmallow was generally a looser, pourable product than what comes in a modern jar. Jarred marshmallow creme today is stiff enough to hold a spoon upright; slacken it with a teaspoon of hot water or warm it briefly so the mixture actually pours rather than sits in a lump.
- MarmaladeUse a marmalade with real shred in it, and chop any long strips of peel so they do not drag off the spoon in one piece. A very sweet commercial marmalade makes the whole thing cloying; a bitter Seville-style one is what keeps the marshmallow in check.
- The ratioOne part marmalade to two parts marshmallow is the sweet, mild version. Going to equal parts gives a sharper sauce that reads as orange rather than as sugar, and is worth trying first.
- MixingStir, do not beat. Whipping air into marshmallow creme turns it pale and foamy, and it will slide off the ice cream instead of clinging.
- Yield and servingThree tablespoonfuls of sauce dresses one generous sundae, or two modest ones. Fountain practice was a scoop or two in a footed glass with the sauce poured over at the last moment, since marshmallow skins over as it stands.
- Make it to orderThere is no keeping quality to consider but there is a keeping problem: the sauce firms up and dulls as it stands. Mix it while the glasses are being filled.
This comes from a book of alcohol-free drinks and fountain confections published as the United States moved toward national Prohibition — the "water wagon" of the title being generally read as the temperance pledge, with Uncle Sam the one driving it. Soda fountains are often said to have benefited commercially from that shift, and sundaes of this kind were given the name of a city, a college or a hotel, and written up in trade manuals for druggists. The Newcastle belongs to a large family of such names; there is no documented connection to any particular Newcastle. What the recipe does record accurately is the fountain's stock of pumped syrups and creams, marshmallow among them, which let a clerk build a named dessert out of two strokes of a ladle.