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Goodner's Sarsaparilla Syrup
Two drams essence sarsaparilla root, 2 drams essence wintergreen, i gallon plain syrup. Color with caramel coloring.
A fountain formula rather than a kitchen one: three ingredients, scaled for a gallon jug that a dispenser would work through in a week. The proportions only make sense once you know what "essence" and "plain syrup" meant behind the counter.
- Drams are fluid dramsA fluid dram is one eighth of a fluid ounce, about 3.7 mL, so 2 drams is roughly 1 1/2 teaspoons. Weight drams would be a different figure again; for liquid flavourings in fountain books the fluid measure is intended.
- Plain syrupTrade shorthand for heavy simple syrup. Fountain formularies commonly give something like 13 lb of sugar to a gallon of water, which works out near two parts sugar to one part water by weight; a gallon of the finished syrup carries roughly 7 to 8 lb of sugar. Modern 1:1 simple syrup is much thinner and will taste watery when cut with soda.
- Essence is not oilAn "essence" in this period was an alcoholic solution of the volatile oil, typically a few percent strength. Do not substitute pure oil of wintergreen, which is concentrated methyl salicylate and toxic in small amounts; use a food-grade wintergreen flavouring extract and taste as you go.
- Sarsaparilla versus sassafrasTrue sarsaparilla is the root of a Smilax vine. Many nineteenth-century "sarsaparilla" flavourings were built on sassafras root bark instead, which contains safrole and is no longer permitted as a food flavouring in the United States. Check what your extract is actually made from.
- Caramel colouringClass I caramel colour, sold as liquid caramel or gravy browning. Add it last and a little at a time until you reach the expected root-beer brown, since it is easier to darken than to lighten.
- Scaling downFor a household batch, work in quarts: a scant 3/8 teaspoon of each essence per quart of heavy syrup. A gallon of finished syrup is about 128 drinks at a fountain pour of 1 oz syrup topped with 7 to 8 oz cold carbonated water.
- Keeping itHeavy syrup is shelf-stable at room temperature for weeks, but the volatile flavours fade and the alcohol carrier evaporates once the bottle is opened repeatedly. Keep it capped and refrigerated and make it in quantities you will drink within a month.
Sarsaparilla syrup sat alongside root beer and birch beer as one of the medicinal-tasting "root" flavours that carried over from the druggist's counter to the soda fountain. Smilax root had a long reputation as a blood purifier and was a mainstay of patent tonics through the nineteenth century, so a fountain drink flavoured with it inherited a whiff of respectability. The wintergreen here is doing much of the work the drinker notices: sarsaparilla essence on its own is fairly muted, and the methyl salicylate note is often what is now recognised as "sarsaparilla" or old-fashioned root beer. Named formulas of this kind may represent a particular fountain man's own proportions, circulated in the trade press and reprinted in compilations, but nothing here documents the individual behind the name.