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Limeade
Draw the usual quantity of plain syrup into the tumbler; then squeeze the juice of one-half of a fresh lime-not lemon-into the tumbler (using a squeezer), put in a small quantity of shaved ice. Fill the tumbler full of soda water and serve with a straw. The limes may be bought by the barrel at a low price; and, as the fruit is small (not much larger than a walnut), this item is of trifling expense.
A soda-fountain formula rather than a kitchen recipe: it assumes a syrup pump, a shaved-ice bin and a charged-water draft arm. All of that translates easily to a home bar.
- "The usual quantity of plain syrup"At the fountain this would have meant a measured draw of plain (unflavored) sugar syrup, on the order of an ounce to an ounce and a half. Fountain plain syrup was generally made heavy -- something close to two parts sugar to one of water -- so it would not thin the drink or ferment in the jar.
- Tumbler sizeFountain tumblers of the period commonly ran somewhere between 8 and 12 ounces. Scale the syrup down if you are working in a smaller glass, or the drink will read as candy.
- The limes are not the limes you will buyA fruit "not much larger than a walnut" fits the West Indian or Key lime, and half of one yields only a teaspoon or so of juice. Half of a modern Persian lime gives close to a tablespoon, which is the more useful equivalent here; if you use Key limes, squeeze a whole one.
- Fresh, and the recipe means itThe insistence on lime and not lemon is a flavor point, but the insistence on fresh matters more. Bottled lime cordial and lime juice both carry a cooked, slightly bitter note that this three-ingredient drink has nothing to hide behind.
- Shaved ice, not cubesShaved ice chills the glass instantly and lets the soda foam up through it. Cubes will work but the drink needs a moment longer and a gentle stir, since nothing in this recipe is shaken.
- Soda waterAny well-carbonated seltzer stands in for fountain water. Draw or pour it against the side of the glass in a single steady stream so the syrup lifts and mixes without being stirred flat.
- YieldOne glass. The proportions hold if you build several at once, but do not pre-mix and hold the drink -- it goes flat and the lime dulls within the hour.
The American Soda Book belongs to the great age of the American drug-store fountain, when a pharmacist's counter sold charged water by the glass. The commercial logic in the last two sentences is the real subject of the entry: West Indian limes could be bought by the barrel, cheap and small, and a soda man who preferred them to lemons could sell an equally attractive drink for less. The small, thin-skinned, very acidic fruit described here is the type usually called the Key or West Indian lime; the larger, seedless Persian lime that fills American produce shelves today became the commercial standard only later, after Florida's Key lime groves were damaged by hurricane. Lime juice's older reputation as an antiscorbutic on British ships had already given it a wholesome character, which suited a fountain that still sat, at least nominally, in a pharmacy.](this last note is traditional background rather than a claim about this particular recipe.)