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Chocolate Syrup (Dissolve the contents of can)
Dissolve the contents of 1 can of American Powdered Chocolate in hot simple syrup, made by adding 5 pounds granulated sugar to 5 pints of water. Mix I 1½ ounces cornstarch with cold water, add to the the chocolate and boil for 1 minute. Strain while hot through a sieve or flannel. This makes about 1 gallon of chocolate syrup. Pour into an 8-ounce china cup 1½ ounce genuine cream, add ½ ounces chocolate syrup, fill the cup with hot water from the draft tube, and stir with a spoon. This formula is for making a syrup for use in hot soda when the syrup is not heated. Many dealers, however, prefer to dispense a finished hot chocolate from the syrup can, and this is really the best way of all. See formulas preceding.
A soda-fountain bulk formula: a gallon of thick chocolate syrup, thickened with cornstarch so it holds together in hot water rather than settling out. Scaling it down by a quarter or an eighth gives a quantity a household can actually use.
- The unknown ingredient"American Powdered Chocolate" was a trade product sold by the can to fountain operators, and the can size is not given. Whether it was sweetened or plain is not stated; for a home version, reckon on roughly 8 to 10 ounces of unsweetened cocoa powder per gallon of syrup and adjust to taste. Any conversion here is an estimate, not a translation.
- The simple syrupFive pounds of sugar to five pints of water is a heavy fountain syrup, roughly equal parts sugar and water by weight. Dissolve the sugar in the water over heat before the cocoa goes in, or the cocoa will clump against undissolved crystals.
- Cornstarch by weightAn ounce and a half is a weight, not a volume, and works out to about 5 to 6 tablespoons. Slurry it in cold water first, as directed, and hold the boil to the stated minute: cornstarch thins again if boiled hard or long, and the syrup will lose the body that keeps the cocoa in suspension.
- StrainingThe flannel bag was fountain equipment. A fine sieve lined with a double layer of cheesecloth does the same job, and doing it while hot matters because the syrup stiffens as it cools.
- The draft tubeA hot-water draft tube on a soda fountain delivered water at just below boiling. Water at about 200F suits the drink.
- Serving proportionsHalf an ounce of syrup in an 8-ounce cup is a thin drink by modern taste, and reads as though it may be a misprint for 1½ ounces (the printed text garbles the cornstarch quantity in the same way). Try 1½ ounces of syrup with the ½ ounce of cream and adjust.
- "Genuine cream"The qualifier distinguishes real cream from thinned or substitute creams. Use cream rather than milk.
- Yield and keepingAbout one gallon, or roughly 85 servings at 1½ ounces. The syrup has no preservative beyond its sugar; refrigerate it and use it within two or three weeks, and discard it if it thickens further, sours, or shows any surface growth.
The American Soda Book belongs to the era when the drug-store fountain was a year-round business and needed a winter trade to survive the cold months. Hot soda -- hot chocolate, hot beef tea, hot clam bouillon, hot lemonade -- was dispensed from the same marble counter as summer phosphates, using a hot-water draft tube plumbed alongside the carbonated water. This formula exists because the fountain man needed a concentrate that would behave predictably under a busy counter. The author adds the aside that many dealers "prefer to dispense a finished hot chocolate from the syrup can."