Home › At the Fountain › Boston Nut Sundae
Boston Nut Sundae
One dipper of ice cream, sliced orange cut in diamond-shaped pieces, sliced pineapple cut in triangular shape, whole English walnuts, maraschino cherries. The nuts and fruits to be arranged artistically. No syrups used. "Boxer" Flip.
Mixing glass half full shaved ice, 1 dash angostura bitters (or orange bitters), add 2 ounces port wine, ½ ounce ginger ale syrup, 1 ounce lemon syrup, add soda from large stream, pour from shaker to tumbler several times and serve with slice of pineapple or orange.
Two fountain items run together in the original text: a plated sundae and a port-based flip. Both are assembly jobs, and both depend on fountain equipment and fountain syrups that need translating.
- One dipperA soda fountain dipper of the period ran roughly 2 to 2.5 ounces, about a standard scoop today. The sundae serves one; the flip likewise makes a single tumbler.
- "No syrups used"This is the whole point of the sundae. A fountain sundae was conventionally built on a pour of flavoured syrup or sauce; here the sweetness comes only from the fruit and cherries, so the ice cream and the cut fruit must both be good. Do not add sauce.
- English walnutsThe trade term for the common walnut (Juglans regia), as against the native black walnut. "Whole" here indicates unbroken shelled kernels rather than chopped nuts; it does not mean nuts served in the shell.
- Cutting the fruitDiamonds from orange slices and triangles from pineapple rings were cut for the look, since the dish had to sell across a marble counter. Canned pineapple rings, well drained, behave better than fresh, which weeps and thins the melting cream.
- Ginger ale syrup and lemon syrupBoth were fountain stock: heavy sugar syrup flavoured with ginger and citrus oils, and with lemon juice in the second. A ginger syrup and a tart lemon syrup stand in, but note they are sweeter and thicker than a modern cordial, so start with less and taste.
- "Soda from large stream"Fountain draft arms had a fine stream for mixing and a coarse one for filling. The large stream means a fast, aerating pour to raise a head; a hard pour of cold seltzer from a siphon is the nearest equivalent.
- Pouring back and forthThe technique is known today as throwing. Moving the drink between shaker and tumbler several times mixes and aerates without shaking, which would drive off the carbonation. Keeping the containers well apart stretches the stream.
- A flip without eggA bar flip of the era normally carried a whole egg. This fountain version has none, so expect a light, spritzy port cooler rather than anything creamy. It contains about two ounces of fortified wine per glass.
The soda fountain of the early twentieth century was a serious commercial kitchen with its own vocabulary, and books like this one were trade manuals for the men working behind the marble. Sundaes named for cities were a standard way to fill a menu, and "Boston" here signals nothing about Massachusetts cooking beyond the fashion for place-names; what marks the dish out is the line "no syrups used," an unusually restrained instruction in a trade built on flavoured syrup by the gallon. The "Boxer" Flip beside it is a reminder that American fountains and bars overlapped heavily before Prohibition: the same dispenser sold ice cream to children and port coolers to adults, drawing on the same shaved ice, the same syrups and the same draft soda.