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Chocolate Syrup (One pound American Cocoa can)
One pound American Cocoa, 1 can American Evaporated Cream, 8 ounces boiling water, 2 drams extract of vanilla. Simple syrup enough to make 1 gallon. Rub the cocoa into a smooth paste with the water, add the milk and 1 pint of syrup, boil for 1 minute and add balance of syrup, when cold add vanilla. To serve, use from 1 to 2 ounces of chocolate syrup to a cupful of boiling hot water, or better, hot milk and water mixed equal parts, and top with whipped cream.
This is a fountain-scale formula: it makes a full gallon of chocolate syrup meant to be dispensed by the ounce over weeks of trade. Scaling it to a quarter or an eighth is the first thing most home cooks will want to do.
- DramsA fluid dram is one eighth of a fluid ounce, roughly 3.7 ml. Two drams of vanilla extract is about 1.5 teaspoons for the whole gallon, which is a light hand by modern standards.
- Simple syrup, fountain strengthSoda-fountain "simple syrup" was generally heavier than the 1:1 syrup of a cocktail book. Published fountain formulas vary, but many run in the region of 6 to 7 pounds of sugar per gallon of finished syrup, giving a thicker, sweeter, better-keeping syrup. A light 1:1 syrup will give a thinner and somewhat less sweet result.
- How much syrup that isThe instruction is to add enough syrup to bring everything to one gallon, so the cocoa, the water, the can of cream and the syrup together total 128 fluid ounces. Weigh or measure into a marked container rather than guessing.
- American Evaporated CreamCanned "evaporated cream" of the period was generally unsweetened evaporated milk; can sizes varied, with 16 ounces common. Modern US cans are usually 12 ounces, so top up with a little whole milk if you want the original richness. Do not substitute sweetened condensed milk.
- The cocoaA pound of unsweetened cocoa powder is roughly 4 to 5 cups. The recipe most likely intends natural (non-alkalised) cocoa; Dutch-process will give a darker, mellower, less fruity syrup and is perfectly usable.
- The hinge: paste firstRubbing the cocoa to a smooth paste with the 8 ounces of boiling water before anything else is what keeps the syrup from being gritty. Add liquid to the cocoa a little at a time, not the reverse, and work out every lump before the milk goes in.
- The one-minute boilOnce the milk is in, the mixture scorches easily. Stir constantly over moderate heat, count the minute from a true rolling boil, and pull it off. Vanilla goes in only when cold, as the original says, because the alcohol carries the aroma off with the steam.
- Keeping itThis is a dairy syrup, not a shelf-stable one. Refrigerate it and use it within about a week; a fountain turned its gallon over quickly, a home kitchen will not. Cocoa solids settle, so shake or stir before each use.
- Yield and servingOne gallon at 1 to 2 ounces a cup gives roughly 64 to 128 servings. The half-milk, half-water dilution the recipe recommends is the better drink and is worth following.
Fountain manuals like this one were written for the man behind the marble counter, not the housewife, which is why the quantities start at a gallon and the ingredients are named as they came from the wholesaler's shelf: a one-pound cocoa can, a can of evaporated cream, syrup by the gallon. Hot chocolate mattered commercially because soda water did not sell in January; hot fountain drinks, served with hot water or hot milk instead of carbonated water, were how a druggist kept the fountain earning through the winter. The instruction to top with whipped cream suggests the drink was already being sold as an indulgence rather than a mere beverage.