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Clam Juice Soda
One ounce American Clam Bouillon, 2 ounces cold milk, 5 ounces soda. Salt and pepper to taste. Always use white pepper.
A savory fountain drink from the era when the soda counter sold beef tea and clam broth alongside phosphates and egg creams. It is easy to reproduce, provided you understand what the three quantities mean.
- The ounces are fluid ouncesAll three measures are volumes drawn at the fountain: 1 oz clam bouillon, 2 oz milk, 5 oz soda water, for a single 8 oz glass. Nothing here is weighed.
- "Soda" is carbonated waterAt a 1900s fountain this meant plain charged water from the tap, not a sweetened bottled soda. Use seltzer or club soda, well chilled and as lively as you can get it.
- American Clam BouillonThe capitalisation suggests a proprietary bottled clam broth of the period rather than a homemade stock. Bottled clam juice is the nearest modern equivalent; it is usually salty, so taste before adding any salt at all.
- Everything must be coldEverything cold -- the recipe specifies cold milk. Chilled ingredients and building the drink just before serving will give the best result; a warm mix is more likely to foam over and separate.
- Mix before you chargeStir the bouillon, milk and seasoning together in the glass first, then add the soda water down the side in one steady pour. Stirring after the soda goes in kills the carbonation immediately.
- Why white pepperThe usual explanation is appearance: black specks show in a pale glass, while white pepper seasons without showing. Note that white pepper also tastes distinctly different from black, so the choice may not be purely visual.
- YieldOne 8 oz glass. Scale by the glass rather than mixing a batch, as the drink separates within a few minutes of standing.
The American soda fountain of the 1890s and 1900s was as much a lunch counter as a sweet shop, and the same marble bar that dispensed vanilla phosphates also sold hot beef tea, malted milk and clam broth as light nourishment, often on quasi-medicinal grounds. Clam juice in particular was promoted as strengthening and easy on the stomach. Such drinks sat alongside the sweet ones on the fountain list, a habit that reflects both the fountain's descent from the pharmacy and the era's enthusiasm for shellfish broth as an invalid food.