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Cream Nectar
To 2 quarts of sweet cream add 2 pounds of pulverized sugar and stir until dissolved. Add 1 quart orange syrup, 1 quart pineapple sugar syrup, and a orange syrup, 1 quart pineapple syrup, and a few drops vanilla extract. Color a pretty pink. Mix thoroughly and draw in a large soda glass with fine and coarse stream. Also drawn with ice No soda water dealer can prepare all his fruit, concentrated syrups, or crushed fruits and make them as good or as cheaply as he can procure them and make them as good or as cheaply as he can procure them from reputable manufacturers.
This is a fountain syrup base rather than a single drink: you make a large batch of sweetened, flavored cream and dispense it a glass at a time under carbonated water. The text as printed is garbled by duplicated typesetting, so read the ingredient list carefully before scaling.
- The duplicated lineThe original repeats itself: "1 quart orange syrup, 1 quart pineapple sugar syrup, and a orange syrup, 1 quart pineapple syrup." The intended formula is one quart each of orange and pineapple syrup, not two of each. The closing sentence about buying syrups from manufacturers also carries a duplicated clause ("and make them as good or as cheaply as he can procure them").
- ScaleAs written this makes roughly a gallon of base, enough for several dozen sodas. Divide by eight for a home batch: 1 cup cream, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup each orange and pineapple syrup.
- Pulverized sugarPulverized sugar is finely ground granulated sugar, closest today to caster or superfine sugar. Modern confectioners' sugar contains cornstarch; use superfine, or dissolve plain granulated sugar with gentle warming.
- Fountain syrups"Orange syrup" and "pineapple syrup" mean heavy sugar syrups flavored with juice or extract, typically well over half sugar by weight, not modern breakfast syrup and not fruit juice. Two pounds of sugar on top of them makes this base emphatically sweet by current taste; reduce the added sugar if you are drinking it rather than selling it.
- Coloring"A pretty pink" was got with carmine or cochineal solution at the fountain. Any modern food coloring works, or a spoonful of raspberry or strawberry syrup, which also adds flavor.
- Fine and coarse streamFountain draft arms had two taps: a fine spray to agitate and blend the syrup, then a coarse stream to fill. With a siphon or bottled soda water, add a small splash first and stir the syrup smooth, then top up quickly with a straight pour to keep the carbonation.
- Keeping itThis is sweetened dairy with nothing to preserve it. Fountains mixed it daily and kept it on ice; refrigerate and use within two or three days, and expect the fruit acids to thicken or curdle the cream if it stands longer.
Cream sodas of this kind belong to the era when a druggist's fountain was as much a manufacturing operation as a counter: the operator kept a rank of syrup jars, a carbonator, and a book of formulas like this one telling him how to combine them. The tacked-on remark that no dealer can make his own fruit syrups as cheaply or as well as he can buy them from reputable manufacturers is the real tell about the period — American soda books of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were often published or underwritten by the syrup and extract houses whose products they recommended, and advice and advertisement sit side by side without apology. "Nectar" was a fountain name that promised luxury rather than describing a fixed formula, which is why nectar recipes vary so widely from one book to the next.