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Cream Syrup
Sweet Cream, 1 quart; Milk, 1 quart; Sugar, 4 lbs. "Cream" Soda Water.
A correspondent has sent us, for the benefit of other dealers, the following formula for the so-called improvement in "cream" soda water. This "cream" is said to be similar to that formerly advertised as "whipped" cream, "frosted" cream, and under various similar trademark names. Into a ten-gallon fountain pour the following ingredients in the order named, agitating well after each addition: Cool Water, 1 gallon; Gelatin Solution, 1 gallon; Syrup, 1; American Soda Foam, 10 ounces; American Sarsaparilla Color, 1 ounce; American Extract Vanilla, 1 ounce. Add 4 more gallons of cool water, and charge with carbonic acid gas until the pressure remains at 160 pounds. The fountain is then ready to be attached to a dispensing apparatus and drawn through a draft tube, like root beer. It is not intended that the fountain should be filled to its capacity. A little of this "cream" should added to the syrup before or after the carbonated water is drawn, as may be desired. The gelatin solution is made by dissolving 3 ounces of first quality gelatin in 1 gallon of hot water, and straining through muslin. The solution must, of course, be made only as wanted for use. We recommend the use of our concentrated syrups, as they require no compounding, except dilution with simple syrup. The best formulas for their use will be found under their proper headings.
This entry is really two formulas run together: a plain cream syrup of dairy and sugar, and a trade formula for the "cream" foam that was charged into a bulk fountain. Neither can be reproduced safely with a modern reading, and the reasons are worth spelling out.
- Raw dairy held at ambient temperatureRaw dairy with no heating step — The first formula is a quart of sweet cream, a quart of milk and 4 lb of sugar. No method is given at all, and nothing in it brings the dairy to a pasteurising temperature. The sugar is high but not obviously high enough to make an unrefrigerated mixture keep.
- The gelatin solution is a culture mediumThe gelatin solution — Three ounces of gelatin in a gallon of hot water, strained through muslin and diluted into several more gallons of cool water, is a nutritious medium and the original clearly knows it: "The solution must, of course, be made only as wanted for use." That instruction is the whole of the safety margin here.
- American Soda FoamAmerican Soda Foam — A proprietary foaming agent; preparations of this kind were commonly saponin extracts of quillaia (soapbark), though the text does not say what was in this one. Saponins are now permitted in beverages only at controlled limits, and the named proprietary products no longer exist in any form you could match ounce for ounce.
- 160 pounds of pressure160 pounds of pressure — The text calls for charging a ten-gallon fountain with carbonic acid gas until the pressure holds at 160 pounds. Charging any improvised container to that pressure is a serious mechanical hazard quite apart from the contents.
- "Syrup, 1"The unit is missing in the original. Read against the surrounding gallon measures it is presumably one gallon of simple syrup, but the text does not say so, and this kind of elision is common in trade formularies written for people who already knew the house method.
- What the colour is doingWhat the colour is doing — American Sarsaparilla Color is listed separately from the flavouring; the flavour in this formula comes from the vanilla extract, with the colour presumably there for appearance alone.
- If you want the drinkCream soda is still made, and modern recipes for vanilla syrup and for foamed dairy drinks exist in quantity. Use one of those rather than any adaptation of this page.
This belongs to a genre that barely registers now: the supply-house formulary, published by a manufacturer of flavouring extracts and circulated to the druggists who ran soda fountains — hence the closing pitch for "our concentrated syrups." The fountain was a pharmacy fixture, and the dispenser was expected to compound his own syrups from concentrates the same way he compounded medicines, which is why the text slips so easily between "formula," "solution" and "charge." The passage is also a small record of a competitive scramble: the text itself notes that this "cream" was like preparations "formerly advertised as 'whipped' cream, 'frosted' cream, and under various similar trademark names." What this page preserves is a dealer's shortcut, passed on by a correspondent, for imitating a branded effect without paying for the brand.