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Orangeade, Plain
American Concentrated Orangeade Syrup, 1 quart; Plain Ice Water, 11 quarts; American Fruit Acid, 2 ounces. Put in a large punch bowl with a large block of ice, cut an orange in thin slices and float on top, dip out witl. a ladle enough to fill a mineral glass. This makes a delicious drink; a big seller and much profit.
A soda-fountain formula written for volume service rather than a home pitcher. The two branded components are the only real obstacles; both have plain substitutes.
- Yield and scalingAs written this makes 12 quarts, or three gallons, before ice melt — about forty-eight 8-ounce servings. For a household batch, divide by eight: 1/2 cup syrup to 5 1/2 cups water, with acid to taste.
- \American Concentrated Orangeade Syrup -- A proprietary sweetened orange base, not juice. The nearest modern equivalent is an orange syrup: equal weights sugar and water dissolved, flavoured with fresh juice and grated zest, strained. Commercial orange soda syrup also works.
Soda-fountain manuals of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were written for the dispenser behind the marble counter, not the cook, which is why this entry ends with a note on profit rather than on flavour. Orangeade sat alongside lemonade as the fountain's non-carbonated stock in trade: cheap to build from a concentrated syrup, easy to hold in a bowl during a rush, and visually persuasive with fruit floating on a block of ice. The separate bottle of "fruit acid" is the tell that these drinks were built from syrup rather than fruit; it supplied the tartness that real juice would have provided, and it kept far better in a warm shop. Ice delivered in blocks and chipped or sawn as needed was standard fountain equipment before mechanical refrigeration became general, and a great deal of the appeal of such a bowl was simply the sight of that ice on a hot afternoon.