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Club Sandwich Sundae
A novelty well made and properly placed before the public is assured of immediate success if it is an attractive article. A club sandwich sundae is a new acquisition to the soda water trade and one that comes first among the many innovations introduced by warm weather. Have an individual mold made by a tinsmith. He may use for a model a small ice cream sandwich mold, making it three inches deep, three inches wide and two and one-half inches long. Have the bottom plate made to fit very closely and perfectly flat on the inside so as not to retain any soft cream or water that may accumulate during the rush hours. Take two saucers, one smaller than the other, put a napkin between them, place a fresh, crisp lettuce leaf on the top saucer, then proceed with the sundae. Cut a slice of orange, trim all the rind off carefully and put it on the bottom of the mold. Place a crême de menthe cherry in each corner and fill mold half full of vanilla ice cream. Then cover with two nabisco wafers, several slices of pineapple (crême de rose pineapple adds to the color scheme), and fill balance of mold with orange sherbet or water ice. Press firmly, turn and you have the daintiest and most tempting service of the season to place before your customer. Always be careful to thoroughly drain your before using and it works easier if chilled. Should the sandwiches be desired to fill outside orders use lady fingers instead of wafers. With practice these sandwiches may be turned out in a very short time, and of course every second counts during the rush hours. But, by convincing your patrons that you can give them something they will truly relish, they will wait willingly You can get a good price for this novelty and the advertising you will get for your enterprise will well repay you for your experiment.
This is an assembly job rather than a cooking one: a layered frozen "sandwich" built in a small rectangular mold and turned out onto a lettuce leaf. Everything depends on the mold being cold and the components being firm.
- The moldThe tinsmith's box was 3 inches deep by 3 wide by 2 1/2 long, with a flat-fitting bottom plate specified so that no soft cream or water could collect in it; whether it doubled as a push-plate the text does not say. A small loaf pan, a mini terrine, or a straight-sided plastic container lined with plastic wrap does the same work, with the wrap overhang for lifting the block out.
- Chill everythingThe closing line notes that 'it works easier if chilled,' though the garbled sentence leaves open whether that refers to the mold or to the drained fruit. Either way a warm mold melts a skin of cream that then sticks, and the block tears when turned out. Freeze the mold, work fast, and return the filled mold to the freezer for 20-30 minutes before unmolding.
- A garbled line'Always be careful to thoroughly drain your before using' is missing its noun in the original printing. The likeliest candidate is the fruit -- syrup left on the pineapple and orange will not freeze hard and will make a wet seam through the block -- though the mold is also a possible reading.
- Crème de menthe and crème de roseThese were fountain trade terms for cherries and pineapple steeped in colored, flavored syrup -- green and pink respectively -- and were generally non-alcoholic despite the liqueur names. Modern equivalents are maraschino cherries and candied or syrup-packed pineapple; if you want the green, use the dyed mint cherries sold for cocktails.
- Nabisco wafersIn 1900s usage 'nabisco' pointed to the National Biscuit Company's Sugar Wafer, a thin rectangular filled wafer, rather than to the company name as a general cookie brand. Any crisp rectangular sugar wafer or a langue de chat substitutes. The lady fingers suggested for outside orders are sturdier and less likely to shatter.
- Ice cream textureBoth the vanilla and the sherbet need to be soft enough to press into corners but not melting. Take them out of the freezer about five minutes ahead, or paddle them briefly in a bowl. Fully soft cream will refreeze grainy.
- The lettuce and the doubled saucersThe recipe calls for a napkin between two saucers with a crisp lettuce leaf on top, but gives no reason for the arrangement. Use a crisp inner leaf of iceberg or romaine, or skip it -- it contributes nothing to the flavor.
- YieldThe mold as specified holds about 22 1/2 cubic inches, roughly 12 to 13 fluid ounces, still larger than a modern dessert serving. A block half that size, cut from a loaf pan, suits most people.
The club sandwich sundae belongs to a period when fountain men competed on novelty as much as on flavor and trade journals ran a steady stream of new "creations" with borrowed names. The club sandwich itself -- a multi-decker of toast, chicken and bacon -- was a fashionable restaurant item at the time, and the fountain simply appropriated the idea of visible layers: cream, wafer, fruit, ice, turned out as a solid block. The insistence on having a mold made by a tinsmith is a reminder that a one-off shape like this fell outside what the supply houses stocked, and the closing paragraph about advertising, rush hours and getting a good price shows who the book was written for. This is not a home recipe; it is trade instruction for a dispenser, and the lettuce leaf under a scoop of orange ice is pure counter theater.