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Peach Frosted
Gelatin, 8 ounces; peach juice, 2 pints; syrup, 4 pints; vanilla extract, I fl. ounce; water, enough to make 6 gallons. Carbonate in the fountain to 150 pounds' pressure. To serve: Draw I fl. ounce of the syrup into a 12-ounce glass and half fill the glass with carbonated water. Draw also another 12-ounce glass half full of charged whipped cream and pour the contents of the glasses together until mixed.
This is a bulk fountain formula written for a druggist with a carbonating apparatus, not for a home kitchen. The proportions scale down cleanly, but the equipment does not.
- The hinge: gelatin must be dissolved separatelyEight ounces of gelatin will not disperse in cold juice or cold syrup. Bloom it in a portion of the water, warm until fully dissolved and clear, then combine with the syrup and juice and cool before it goes anywhere near the fountain. Any undissolved grains will settle out and clog a draw valve.
- What the gelatin is doingIt is not there to set anything. At roughly 8 ounces to 6 gallons it adds body and, more importantly, holds the head of foam so the drink stays "frosted" rather than collapsing. Modern fountain work uses gum arabic or a stabiliser blend for the same job.
- Syrup means simple syrup"Syrup" in a soda book of this period is plain sugar syrup at fountain strength, generally in the region of 2 pounds of sugar per pint of water, close to saturation. It is much heavier than a home 1:1 syrup.
- 150 pounds' pressure needs a fountainThat figure refers to a commercial carbonator with a rated pressure vessel and relief. It is not achievable, and should not be attempted, in bottles, jars, kegs or any improvised container. Scale the formula down and use a countertop carbonator or plain soda water instead.
- Charged whipped creamCream loaded into a whipper and charged with gas, drawn half a glass at a time. A modern cream siphon is the nearest equivalent; sweeten lightly, as the syrup is already heavy.
- YieldSix gallons of finished carbonated base, and each drink takes only 1 fluid ounce of it, so the batch runs to something over seven hundred servings. Divide by 12 for a manageable half-gallon, or by 24 for a quart.
- Peach juiceThe recipe specifies only peach juice; strained juice from ripe fruit, or the drained liquor from canned peaches, both fit. If using a modern nectar, cut the syrup back, since nectars carry their own sugar.
- Pouring between glassesThe two-glass pour is the whole technique. Moving the mixture back and forth aerates it and folds the charged cream through the soda without a spoon, which would knock the gas out.
A "frosted" at the turn-of-the-century American soda fountain meant a drink lightened with whipped cream or ice cream and worked until it carried a pale, foamy head; the term sat alongside phosphates, egg drinks and lactarts on the same marble counter. Books of this kind were written for pharmacists, who ran the fountain as a profitable sideline to the prescription counter and expected to compound their own syrups by the gallon from formulas printed in trade manuals. The gelatin here may well be a working druggist's trick, though that is inference rather than record: pharmacy practice leaned on mucilages and gums as routine tools for giving body to a liquid preparation. Peach was among the standard fountain flavours of the period, along with cherry, pineapple and orange.