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Aspepsin Syrup
Pepsin (pure crystals), 1 dram; liquid phosphate, 2 drams; vanilla syrup, 2 pints; raspberry syrup No. 2, 6 pints. Mix and strain; serve in mineral tumbler.
A drugstore fountain syrup, batched in gallons and dispensed an ounce at a time. Everything here is measurable in modern terms except the cross-reference to the book's own raspberry syrup.
- DramsAn apothecary dram is about 3.9 g by weight and a fluid dram about 3.7 mL. Pepsin crystals are dry, so read that as roughly 4 g; the liquid phosphate is fluid, so about 7.5 mL — a rounded teaspoon and a half.
- Liquid phosphateThis is acid phosphate, a dilute solution of phosphoric acid with calcium, magnesium and potassium salts, the standard fountain souring agent of the period. It is still made for cocktail and soda work; plain food-grade phosphoric acid is more aggressive and not a like-for-like swap.
- PepsinA digestive enzyme extracted from pig stomach lining, sold then as "pure crystals" or scale pepsin by the ounce. It is still available as a supplement, but it is porcine-derived, which matters for anyone avoiding pork.
- Raspberry syrup No. 2A back-reference to another formula in the same book, not a commercial product. Any thick raspberry fountain syrup made on a heavy sugar base will stand in; the point is that raspberry carries three-quarters of the volume and dominates the flavour, with the vanilla syrup behind it.
- Do not heat itMix and strain cold. Pepsin is denatured by heat, and warming the syrup to dissolve anything would leave you with a raspberry syrup that no longer justifies its name.
- Mineral tumblerA straight-sided fountain glass, probably in the 8 to 10 oz range. The recipe gives no per-glass measure; usual fountain practice of the period was roughly an ounce to an ounce and a half of syrup in the glass, filled up with carbonated water.
- YieldEight pints, or a gallon, of finished syrup — roughly 85 to 128 drinks depending on whether an ounce or an ounce and a half goes in the glass. Scale to an eighth for a single pint at home.
- KeepingSugar concentration is what preserves this, not the pepsin. Refrigerate any small batch and treat it as you would a homemade fruit syrup rather than trusting it to sit on a counter for a season.
Pepsin was the wonder ingredient of the 1890s and 1900s. Isolated in the 1830s and widely marketed by the end of the century, it was sold as a cure for dyspepsia — the era's catch-all name for indigestion, heartburn and general post-dinner misery — and it turned up in tonics, powders, lozenges and chewing gum. The soda fountain in an American drugstore stood close to the dispensing side of the business, and formulas like this one blurred the two: a raspberry phosphate that could be sold as mild medicine. Acid phosphate did much the same double duty, prized for a clean sour bite and simultaneously credited with settling the stomach and restoring "nerve force." Whether a dram of pepsin dispersed through eight pints of syrup did anything at all in the glass is doubtful; the drink is best read as evidence of how thoroughly patent-medicine language had soaked into everyday refreshment.