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Hot Lemon
Formula I. Four drams lemon essence, 1 ounce solution citric acid, soda syrup to make 32 ounces. Draw 2½ ounces to a mug and serve with a spoon. Formula II.-Three lemons, 4 drams solution citric acid, sufficient granulated sugar, syrup enough to make 32 ounces. Grate peel from the lemons, syrup enough to make 32 ounces. Grate peel from the lemons, triturate this with 1½ its weight of granulated sugar, express the lemons, add the syrup to the mixed juice and peel, let stand for several hours in a covered glass or porcelain vessel, strain and add the acid solution. Serve like the preceding. Formula III. - One ounce lemon essence, 2 drams orange essence of compound spirits of orange, 15 drops nutmeg essence, 4 drams lime juice, 4 drams solution citric acid, syrup enough to make 32 ounces. Serve like the preceding. Formula IV.-One lemon, 1 ounce alcohol, 2 drams solution citric acid, 20 ounces sugar, 20 ounces water, white of 1 egg. Grate the peel of the lemon, macerate with alcohol for a day, express, also express the lemon, mix the two, add the sugar and water, dissolve by agitation and add the solution of citric acid and the egg white, the latter being first beaten to a broth. Serve like the preceding. Formula V.-One ounce lemon syrup, 2 ounces lemon juice, hot water to fill. Instead of lemon juice 1 dram of lime juice and a dash of acid phosphate may be used.
Five interchangeable fountain formulas for the same drink: a concentrated quart of lemon syrup kept behind the counter, drawn off two and a half ounces at a time and topped with hot water. Formula IV is the exception and should be left alone.
- Formula IV and the raw eggA beaten egg white is stirred into a batch of syrup (here around 40 ounces, not the quart the other formulas make) that is then held and dispensed over days, and nothing in the process ever reaches a temperature that would kill Salmonella. Neither the alcohol nor the acid is reliable as a kill step, and a mug of hot water poured over 2½ ounces of cold syrup will not pasteurize it. Use a current recipe if you want a frothed drink.
- Apothecary measuresThese are fluid drams: 1 dram is 1/8 fluid ounce, about 3.7 mL, so 4 drams is half an ounce. The 32 ounces is a finished quart of syrup, and at 2½ ounces per mug that is roughly a dozen servings.
- Solution of citric acidStrengths varied from shop to shop and from book to book; fountain and pharmacy formularies commonly give something on the order of 1 part acid to 4 parts water. The book assumes you know which strength your shop keeps, so the quantities here are genuinely approximate; start at half and taste.
- Syrup means heavy simple syrup"Soda syrup" or "syrup" without qualification is plain sugar syrup at fountain strength, near 2 parts sugar to 1 part water by weight. Ordinary 1:1 simple syrup will give a noticeably thin, sour drink at these acid levels.
- Essences and spiritsLemon essence is alcoholic lemon extract; nutmeg essence is oil of nutmeg in alcohol, and 15 drops is the whole of it — do not substitute ground nutmeg. Compound spirit of orange was a druggist's blend of orange and lemon oils with coriander and other aromatics, and has no shelf equivalent; a good orange extract with a pinch of coriander is the nearest approach.
- Express and triturateExpress is simply juice or squeeze. Triturate means grind the grated zest with the sugar, mortar-and-pestle fashion, so the sugar abrades the oil out of the peel; a food processor does the same work.
- Acid phosphateThe dash suggested in Formula V is dilute phosphoric acid solution, still sold for soda work. It reads as a dry, mineral tartness rather than the bright sourness of citric acid, and a few drops is the dose.
- Formula II needs its restThe several hours of standing is where the drink is made: the syrup draws the oil out of the sugared peel. Cover it, keep it cool, then strain before the acid goes in.
Hot soda was the American drugstore's answer to the winter slump. A fountain that sold carbonated drinks all summer sat idle from November on, so trade journals and formularies of the 1890s and 1900s filled pages with hot beefs, hot clam bouillons, hot ginger and hot lemon, drawn from the same syrup jars and served in a china mug with a spoon rather than a straw. Hot lemonade also carried a medicinal reputation as a remedy for colds, which suited a counter attached to a prescription department; the measurements in drams and the reliance on official preparations like solution of citric acid, compound spirit of orange and acid phosphate show these formulas were written for a pharmacist, not a cook.