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Egg Phosphate Syrup
Special.
Orange Syrup, 1 quart; Lemon Syrup, 1 pint; Sherry Wine, 4 ounces; Santa Croix Rum, 1 ounce. Mix thoroughly.
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 from reputable manufacturers.
This is a compounding formula for a fountain syrup, not a finished drink, and the name describes what it was poured into rather than what goes in it. Nothing here is difficult; the useful work is in translating the trade assumptions.
- There is no egg and no phosphate in itAn egg phosphate was built at the counter: an ounce or so of flavoring syrup, a dash of acid phosphate solution, one whole raw egg, shaken with a little soda water and filled from the draft arm. This formula supplies only the syrup component.
- Quantities in modern measure1 quart orange syrup is about 950 ml, 1 pint lemon syrup about 475 ml, 4 fl oz sherry is 1/2 cup, 1 fl oz rum is 2 tablespoons. Total yield is roughly 1.6 quarts, enough for about 40 drinks at 1.25 oz of syrup each.
- Santa Croix rumA period spelling of St. Croix rum, then a well-known product of the Danish West Indies (now the U.S. Virgin Islands). A dark, dry rum stands in; the single ounce is there for aroma, not for strength.
- The syrups are sugar-heavy by designFountain fruit syrups of this era were far denser than modern simple syrup, often on the order of two parts sugar to one of water, which is what makes the finished blend keep and what makes it stand up to carbonated water without tasting thin. A modern 1:1 simple-syrup-based orange or lemon syrup will read watery in the glass.
- Acid phosphate is the missing bottlePhosphate drinks depend on a dilute solution of phosphoric acid with calcium, potassium and magnesium salts, which gives a dry mineral tartness quite unlike citrus. It disappeared from general trade and is again sold by specialty soda and cocktail suppliers; roughly 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon per glass.
- If you do add the eggThe classic build leaves the egg raw and unheated. Use a pasteurized shell egg or pasteurized whole egg for it, and serve immediately rather than holding shaken drinks.
- StorageBottle and refrigerate. The wine and rum are volatile and the top note fades within a few weeks even though the sugar keeps the syrup sound much longer.
- The closing sentence is advice, not methodThe remark about buying from reputable manufacturers is trade counsel to the fountain operator and has nothing to do with mixing this particular formula.
American soda fountains ran on two commercial preparations: flavoring syrups and acid phosphate, a dilute mineral acid solution that gave a sharper, drier bite than lemon juice and did not cloud. The egg phosphate belonged to the fountain's nourishing side, sold alongside egg lemonades, malted milks and beef-tea, in an era when a whole raw egg shaken into a cold drink was considered a tonic for the run-down clerk as much as a treat. Fountain manuals like this one were written for proprietors rather than home cooks, which is why a formula sits beside a paragraph urging the reader to buy rather than make his crushed fruits, and why sherry and rum appear without comment; a fortified-wine dash turns up in fountain syrup formulas of this period, and is generally absent from those published after Prohibition. It is often said that phosphates fell away because acid phosphate itself became hard to source once fountains closed, and its recent return to bar shelves is largely the work of cocktail revivalists working from books of this kind.