The Roslyn
Into a sherbet glass place a ladleful of ice cream. Pour over strawberry syrup and two spoonfuls of chopped walnuts. Add one spoonful of whipped cream and a cherry.
A fountain sundae in the classic assembly order, written for someone standing behind a marble counter with syrups already in pumps. The quantities are all in fountain measures rather than cups.
- A ladlefulFountain ice cream was portioned with a disher or ladle; something in the region of a quarter to a third of a cup is a reasonable reading. Two small scoops in a footed glass gives the same effect.
- Sherbet glassA stemmed 5 to 6 oz glass with a shallow bowl, not the tall tulip used for a parfait. Any small footed dessert glass or coupe works; a wide bowl keeps the syrup from pooling out of reach of the spoon.
- Strawberry syrupFountain syrup was a sweet sugar syrup, usually with crushed fruit, and pourable rather than jam-like. An ounce or so, about two tablespoons, is a sensible amount. Warmed preserves thinned with a little water stand in well.
- SpoonfulsThe recipe does not define its spoon; read the two spoonfuls of walnuts as roughly a tablespoon or two, chopped. They are better lightly toasted and cooled first.
- Order mattersThe recipe's sequence is ice cream, syrup, nuts, then whipped cream and cherry last. Nothing in the text specifies whether the cream is sweetened.
- The cherryAlmost certainly a maraschino cherry, the usual fountain garnish.
- YieldOne serving, and best assembled to order. Made ahead the cream slumps and the syrup melts channels through the ice cream.
This reads as a soda fountain formula of the kind trade manuals published by the score, each sundae distinguished by small variations in syrup, nut and garnish and given a proprietary name so a counter could offer a long menu from a short list of ingredients. Where names like "The Roslyn" came from is usually unrecorded; such books rarely explain themselves. The combination of fruit syrup, chopped walnuts, whipped cream and a cherry became standard enough to outlast the fountain itself.