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Floating Island
Juice of 1 lemon, 1½ ounces of pineapple syrup. Draw into 12-ounce glass, fill with coarse stream, add slice of pineapple and ladleful crushed pineapple, and serve with spoon and straws.
A fountain drink rather than a dessert, built in the glass and drunk with a spoon at hand. Everything hinges on the carbonation and on having pineapple in two forms.
- Coarse streamSoda fountains had two draws: a fine stream for foaming and mixing, a coarse (or heavy) stream for filling with maximum fizz and minimum agitation. At home, top with well-chilled seltzer poured down the side of the glass so the carbonation survives.
- Pineapple syrupFountain syrup was a heavy sugar syrup flavoured with pineapple; proportions varied from manual to manual, but the syrups were generally near-saturated. Canned pineapple juice is not a substitute; simmer crushed pineapple with an equal weight of sugar, strain, and chill.
- A ladlefulFountain fruit ladles were small, on the order of an ounce or so, so figure two to three tablespoons of crushed pineapple. The fruit is most likely canned crushed pineapple in its own syrup.
- The lemonOne lemon yields two to three tablespoons of juice, which is a substantial amount of acid in a 12-ounce glass. It is there to cut the syrup; taste and hold some back if your syrup is on the light side.
- ProportionsAn ounce and a half of syrup plus the juice leaves roughly nine ounces for soda and fruit. The recipe adds the slice and the crushed pineapple after filling.
- The sliceA ring of pineapple riding at the top of the glass is presumably the 'island' of the name.
- YieldOne 12-ounce glass, one serving. Serve immediately with a long spoon and straws, as directed, since the fruit settles within a minute or two.
Floating island in a cookbook means île flottante, poached meringue adrift on custard; a dish of that name had been in English-language kitchens since the eighteenth century, though the early English version was typically a froth or whipped-cream island on cream or wine rather than meringue on custard. The soda fountain borrowed the name for anything with something visibly floating on top, and by the early 1900s dispensers' manuals carried such appropriated dessert names. American fountains of the period leaned heavily on pineapple: canned Hawaiian fruit had become cheap and shelf-stable, the syrup packed in the tin doubled as flavouring, and the rings held their shape in ice-cold soda better than most fruit. The formula also shows the fountain trade's standard structure, which was a fixed ounce measure of syrup, an acid to balance it, carbonated water to volume, and garnish.