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Fruit Mix
Two ounces punch syrup and a small lump of ice cream. Shake until smooth and add 1 large spoonful cut candied fruits. Add soda, then another lump of the cream and serve.
A soda-fountain formula written for someone standing at the counter with syrup pumps, a shaker and a carbonator at hand. Translated to a home kitchen it is a fruit ice cream soda, and the only real difficulty is that nearly every quantity is given in fountain shorthand.
- Two ounces of syrupFluid ounces, so 1/4 cup. Fountain punch syrups were blended fruit syrups, sweet and thick, though the formula varied from book to book -- citrus with pineapple or grape is one common pattern; a thick commercial fruit-punch or grenadine-and-citrus blend stands in. Plain fruit juice is thinner and less sweet, and the sweetness and body are what carry the soda water.
- A lump of ice creamDispensers worked with a scoop or a flat ladle; a small lump is on the order of a couple of ounces. The recipe names no flavour, and vanilla is the safe assumption.
- SodaCarbonated water, which at the fountain came straight from the tap; the recipe does not say how it was drawn. At home use cold plain seltzer and pour it down the inside of the tilted glass so the carbonation survives.
- Shake until smoothThe first lump of ice cream is shaken to nothing, thickening the syrup into a base. That is the hinge of the drink: shake it properly and the soda foams up into a smooth head rather than separating into froth and liquid.
- Cut candied fruitsGlacé fruit of the sort sold for fruitcake, chopped small. A large spoonful is about a tablespoon. Rinse off loose sugar first, or the drink turns cloyingly sweet.
- The second lumpAdded whole, after the soda, so it floats and is eaten with the long spoon. Do not stir it in.
- Glass and yieldOne drink. The recipe names no glass size; a tall soda glass is the obvious vessel. Serve immediately with a straw and a long spoon; the fruit sinks and the head falls within a minute or two.
Soda fountain manuals like this one were trade books, written for the dispenser behind a drug-store counter rather than for a household, which is why the measures are in fountain units and why no glass size is named. "Punch syrup" was a stock item on the syrup rail, a house blend of citrus and other fruit syrups that let one pump stand in for several, and drinks built on it could carry catch-all names such as Fruit Mix. The candied fruit is a mark of the period's ambition at the fountain: American drug stores competed on elaborate ice cream sodas and sundaes, and the trimmings that had belonged to the confectioner -- glacé fruit cherries, citron, crushed nuts, whipped cream -- migrated into glassware.