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Aspepsin
Make a syrup of 60 grains pure pepsin, 1 dram solution of acid phosphates, 2 ounces water, 1 pint vanilla syrup, and raspberry syrup enough to make 2 pints. Dissolve the pepsin in the acid solution mixed with the water and add the remaining ingredients. Serve solid in 8-ounce glasses.
A drugstore fountain syrup rather than a soda in itself: you build a flavored pepsin syrup, keep it in the bottle, and draw it a glass at a time. The apothecary units are the main obstacle.
- 60 grains of pepsinAn apothecary grain is 64.8 mg, so 60 grains is a little under 4 grams. Modern pepsin is sold by activity (USP units or 1:10,000 strength) rather than by the old "pure pepsin" grade, so the enzyme punch of a fixed weight is not comparable across products.
- 1 dram of acid phosphateA fluid dram is one eighth of a fluid ounce, about 3.7 mL — roughly three quarters of a teaspoon. Solution of acid phosphates means the dilute phosphoric-acid fountain acidulant of the Horsford type, still made for bartenders; it is not the same as concentrated phosphoric acid, which must not be swapped in at the same volume.
- "Serve solid"Fountain slang whose sense is not certain. It is often taken to mean the glass filled with syrup and plain water over ice rather than shot through with carbonated water; some old manuals appear to use it simply to mean a full glass of the finished drink.
- YieldTwo pints of syrup. At a fountain rate of an ounce to an ounce and a half per 8-ounce glass, that is roughly 21 to 32 servings.
- Order of operations mattersThe pepsin is dissolved in the diluted acid first for a reason: pepsin is only active in acid, and dispersing the powder in the thin acid solution before it meets the heavy sweet syrup helps it go in evenly.
- Expect cloudinessCommercial pepsin is a porcine stomach extract and will haze the syrup. The raspberry syrup may well be doing cosmetic work as much as flavor work, masking the color and the faintly savory note the pepsin brings.
- Keep dairy away from itPepsin digests protein and will curdle or thin milk and cream. This syrup belongs in a plain-water or soda drink, not an egg phosphate or a milkshake.
- StorageThere is no preservative here beyond sugar, and reliable cold storage cannot be taken for granted in a formula of this vintage. Make a small batch, keep it cold, and treat it as a week's syrup rather than a season's.
Soda fountains grew out of pharmacies, and for decades the counter sold remedies as freely as refreshment — hence a drink whose selling point is a digestive enzyme. Pepsin, isolated from stomach lining in the nineteenth century and marketed heavily from the 1870s onward as a cure for dyspepsia, turned up in lozenges, chewing gums, wines and fountain syrups alike, and acid phosphate was the standard fountain sour of the era, valued as a tonic as much as for its tartness. The made-up name Aspepsin reads as a druggist's coinage on the same root as dyspepsia, promising the absence of it. The association was pervasive enough that the name Pepsi-Cola is generally traced to the same fashion for pepsin-and-digestion branding, though the drink itself is not documented as having contained the enzyme.