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Lemon Syrup
American Concentrated Lemon Syrup, 1 quart; Plain Syrup, 3 quarts. Fruit Acid 1 to 2 ounces
This is a dispensing formula rather than a set of instructions: a soda fountain operator would already have had a barrel of plain syrup on hand and simply blended the concentrate and acid into it. Reading it as a recipe means supplying the parts the trade took for granted.
- Yield and proportionsFour quarts of finished syrup, or one gallon. The working ratio is one part lemon concentrate to three parts plain syrup, so it scales down cleanly: 1 cup concentrate to 3 cups plain syrup, with the acid reduced in proportion.
- Plain syrupFountain "plain syrup" (also called simple or bar syrup) was a heavy, near-saturated sugar syrup; period formulas run in the region of 7 to 8 lb of sugar to the gallon, not the light 1:1 syrup common in bars today. A thin syrup here will give a watery drink and will spoil faster.
- American Concentrated Lemon SyrupA proprietary trade article. Its composition is not given here; bases of this sort were generally strong sweetened lemon flavourings built on oil of lemon and/or juice. It does not appear to be obtainable under that name today; a modern stand-in is a strong lemon cordial concentrate, or a homemade base of fresh juice and finely grated zest.
- Fruit acidIn fountain and pharmacy books this usually means citric or tartaric acid, stocked as crystals and, in some houses, as a ready-made solution of unstated strength. Which is meant here is genuinely ambiguous, and it matters: 2 oz of dry acid in a gallon gives a considerably sharper syrup than 2 oz of a diluted solution. Add at the low end and taste.
- OuncesCompounders trained in pharmacy generally weighed dry acids and measured liquids by volume, so 1 to 2 ounces is probably weight for crystals and fluid ounces for a solution -- but the original does not say.
- Dissolve the acid firstCrystalline acid dropped straight into cold heavy syrup sinks and dissolves slowly, leaving the first glasses flat and the last ones sharp. Dissolve it in a little warm water, then stir it through the whole batch.
- VesselsAcidified syrup should not sit in bare copper, aluminium or unlined tinware. Glass, stainless steel or food-grade plastic only.
- KeepingThere is no preservative in this formula beyond sugar and acid, and the original assumed rapid turnover at a busy counter. Refrigerate and use within a couple of weeks; discard at the first sign of cloudiness or ferment.
- ServingAllow about 1 to 1.5 fluid ounces of finished syrup in a 8 to 10 oz glass, drawn up with cold carbonated water.
Lemon was the workhorse of the American soda fountain: cheap, keenly acid, and often said to be the flavour against which every other syrup was judged. Formula books of this kind are generally taken to have been written for druggists, who ran the fountain as an extension of the dispensing counter, and they read like prescriptions because that is exactly the habit of mind behind them: a proprietary concentrate bought by the jug, a house stock of plain syrup, and an acid to correct the sweetness. The "fruit acid" line is the tell. Sugar syrup alone tastes cloying and slightly dull, and citric or tartaric acid was added to restore the bite that dilution with carbonated water washes out; the same trick underlies commercial soft drinks to this day. Concentrates sold under grand names like American Concentrated Lemon Syrup were a mainstay of the flavouring-extract trade, and recipes such as this one existed less to teach cookery than to tell an operator how far a purchased gallon could be stretched.