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Frosted Grape Marmalade
Into mixing glass put 2 ounces of grape juice, the juice of half a lemon, 2 teaspoonfuls of powdered sugar, 1 egg, cracked ice and about 2 ounces of plain water. Shake together well. Prepare large goblet in following manner. In bottom of the glass put pieces of ice, 1 tablespoonful of pineapple sherbet. Over this pour ladleful of grated pineapple, then strain contents of shaker over all, dress with fruit and serve with a spoon and straws.
A soda-fountain drink from the era when the dispenser worked with a shaker in one hand and a shaved-ice scoop in the other. The obstacle is the whole raw egg, which in this preparation is never heated at any stage.
- Why the egg is the problemThe egg is broken raw into the shaker with cold juice and ice, then strained over ice and sherbet and drunk immediately. Nothing in the sequence brings it near the 160F needed to kill Salmonella, and the drink is held cold for as long as it takes to sip through a straw. Fountain-era shells were also not washed or graded as they are now. If you want a frosted egg drink, use a current recipe built on pasteurized egg.
- Powdered sugarIn fountain manuals of the period this usually means finely granulated (what would now be sold as superfine or caster sugar), not the cornstarch-laced confectioners' sugar in a modern box.
- Grated pineappleFountain shorthand for pineapple crushed or shredded in its own syrup. Canned crushed pineapple is the nearest modern equivalent.
- Sherbet, 1900s senseA fountain sherbet was generally a fruit ice, often without dairy, though some period formulas included egg white or gelatin; it was softer and more granular than modern sherbet, which by US labelling standards now contains a small amount of milkfat.
- Ladleful and mixing glassFountain ladles varied in size and no standard measure can be assumed. The mixing glass is a heavy tumbler that fits into a metal shaker tin; the recipe's total liquid is only about five ounces before ice.
- YieldOne large goblet, roughly 10 to 12 ounces once ice, sherbet and fruit are counted. The original serves one.
"Marmalade" here seems to be fountain vocabulary rather than preserve-making: in American soda manuals of the 1900s and 1910s the word appears to have marked a thick drink built on crushed or grated fruit spooned into the glass, stiff enough to need a spoon as well as straws. Grape juice owed its place behind the counter to commercial unfermented juice, sold from the 1890s onward and heavily promoted to temperance households, which gave dispensers a shelf-stable purple base that mixed cleanly with lemon. Whole raw eggs were routine at the fountain, appearing in egg phosphates, egg lemonades and flips, and were sold partly as nourishment for invalids and thin children rather than as a treat alone — food safety practice has since reversed.