Claret Ringue

A fountain drink built in a 5-ounce glass, so every measure here is a fluid ounce and the whole thing comes to about two and a half ounces before carbonated water is drawn in. The proportions are small on purpose: this is one serving, meant to be mixed and handed across a counter.

• The soda is assumedThe soda is probably assumed -- the recipe itself never mentions carbonated water, but three ounces of syrup, wine and cream in a five-ounce glass leaves room for it, and fountain formulas of this kind commonly list only what goes into the glass by hand, the dispenser then filling it from the draught arm. Without carbonated water you have three ounces of sweetened wine and cream, not a drink.
• Claret syrup is not claretFountain claret syrup was a sweetened, coloured flavouring syrup, sometimes made with wine and sometimes an imitation built on grape and acid. Modern equivalents are grenadine-style or grape syrups; the actual wine content in this glass comes from the half ounce of port.
• Curdling is the hingeLemon syrup is strongly acidic and port is acidic too, so the cream can break the moment it meets them. Add the cream last, into the glass rather than into the syrups, and draw the soda immediately; do not let the mixture stand.
• Sweet creamIn period usage this means fresh unsoured cream, roughly what is sold now as light cream or half-and-half. Heavy cream will sit heavy in so small a glass.
• Alcohol contentHalf an ounce of port in a five-ounce glass is a trace, but it is real. Anyone avoiding alcohol should leave it out, and a substitute of the same volume in syrup keeps the balance.
• YieldOne 5-ounce glass. Scaling up is straightforward, but mix each glass to order rather than batching, for the same reason the cream goes in last.