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Malted Milk Clam
Two teaspoonfuls malted milk, 1 ounce clam bouillon. Prepare as with malted milk; season to taste; top with whipped cream.
A fountain savoury rather than a sweet — malted milk powder built on clam broth instead of milk or syrup. It is short on detail because it assumes the dispenser already knows the house method for a plain malted milk.
- "Prepare as with malted milk"The usual fountain method was to dissolve the powder in a little hot or cold water in the mixing can to a smooth paste, then add the liquid and shake or spindle until foamy. Adding the liquid all at once tends to leave the powder lumpy.
- Malted milk powderThe period product was plain malted barley, wheat flour and dried whole milk — unsweetened, and meant as a nourishing food. Modern malted milk powder sold for milkshakes usually contains added sugar, which fights the clam broth. Look for a plain or "original" unsweetened malt if you want the drink the book intends.
- Clam bouillonBottled clam broth or clam juice, sold then as an invalid's beverage and still sold today for cooking. Commercial clam juice is usually salty, so taste before adding anything; one ounce is only two tablespoons, so the drink is essentially a strongly flavoured malted milk, not a cup of broth.
- Total volumeThe recipe gives no working liquid; it is carried over from the house malted milk. Fountain servings of this kind were commonly in the region of six to eight ounces, so figure the ounce of bouillon plus five to seven ounces of hot water or milk. Milk softens the salt and the shellfish edge.
- Season to tasteThe recipe leaves this open; celery salt, white pepper, or a few drops of Worcestershire or lemon are the likely candidates. Extra salt is rarely needed on top of bottled clam broth.
- The whipped creamThe recipe does not specify; unsweetened cream, lightly whipped, suits a savoury drink better than a sweetened one.
- YieldOne glass or mug.
Malted milk began as a patented infant and invalid food in the 1880s and was pushed hard by its makers as a restorative for anyone run down, which is how it reached the drug-store soda fountain — the fountain being attached to a pharmacy, its drinks were sold as much for health as for pleasure. Clam bouillon travelled the same road: bottled clam broth was widely recommended in the period as a light, mineral-rich drink for convalescents and for people who could not keep down solid food, and fountains are said to have served it hot in winter. Combining the two, as here, looks like pure fountain logic — two tonics in one glass — and it seems to belong to a family of savoury fountain drinks that faded as the soda counter shed its medical character and became a place for ice cream. The whipped cream on top may suggest that this was still sold as a treat rather than a dose.