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Fruit Floss
These syrups contain all the soft, ripe, luscious part of the fruit, as well as the juice, and make an opaque syrup that absolutely contains all of the fruit that is good and has flavor, consequently all the fruit except the core, seeds and skin. They have a most delicious flavor and are stronger than the concentrated syrups. Six varieties: Apricot, blackberry, peach, pineapple, raspberry and strawberry. Mix one part of fruit floss with 4 parts heavy simple syrup.
This is a fountain formula rather than a kitchen recipe: "fruit floss" was a trade product, a sieved whole-fruit pulp sold to soda dispensers, and the only instruction given is the dilution ratio. Everything else has to be reconstructed.
- What fruit floss wasRipe fruit reduced to a smooth pulp with core, seeds and skin removed — in modern terms a fruit puree passed through a sieve. A good passed-through puree of apricot, peach, raspberry or strawberry stands in directly; canned pineapple blitzed and sieved works for that variety.
- Heavy simple syrupAt the fountain this meant a dense sugar syrup, considerably heavier than a 1:1 bar syrup. A light syrup will leave the finished product thin and much less sweet, which is not what the ratio assumes.
- The ratio is the whole recipeOne part puree to four parts heavy syrup gives a very sweet, opaque syrup by design — it was meant to be diluted again with carbonated water in the glass. Tasted straight it will seem cloying.
- Serving proportionStandard fountain practice was 1 to 1.5 fl oz of syrup in a 6 to 8 oz glass, syrup first, then charged water poured hard against it to mix. A pint of finished syrup makes roughly a dozen glasses.
- It will not keep like a clear syrupA commercial floss pack would have been preserved in some fashion; a fresh puree is not. Pulp-based syrup spoils far faster than a clear syrup, so make small quantities and keep it cold, or freeze the puree in portions and mix as needed.
- Stir before pouringFruit solids settle out of an opaque syrup on standing. Shake or stir before use rather than pouring off the clear top.
- Sieving mattersRaspberry and blackberry need pressing through a fine sieve or the seeds will clog a pump and grit the glass. The recipe's own definition — everything good except core, seed and skin — is the standard to hit.
The soda fountain of the early twentieth century is generally said to have run on roughly three grades of flavoring, and this entry reads as a piece of trade advocacy for the top one. Cheapest were the artificial extracts; next came "concentrated" or true fruit syrups made from strained juice; "floss," "crushed fruit" and similar proprietary names described pulp packs that kept the flesh as well as the juice, which is why the text insists on the word opaque and claims greater strength than concentrates. The six flavors listed — apricot, blackberry, peach, pineapple, raspberry, strawberry — are the usual crushed-fruit line, alongside staples such as lemon, orange, vanilla, chocolate and cherry. Fountain books of this kind were written for the man behind the marble counter rather than the home cook, so a formula could reasonably consist of nothing but a dilution ratio.