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Pear Syrup
American Extract Pear, 1 ounce; Simple Syrup, 1 gallon; American Fruit Acid, 1 ounce; American Soda Foam, ½ ounce.
This is a fountain formula rather than a kitchen recipe: four measured components stirred together to make a gallon of flavoring syrup for dispensing with carbonated water. Three of the four are proprietary trade goods, which is the main obstacle to reproducing it.
- The proprietary items"American Extract Pear," "American Fruit Acid" and "American Soda Foam" were branded supply-house products sold to fountain operators, and their exact compositions are not stated here. Any modern attempt has to substitute a food-grade pear extract, an acid solution and a foaming agent of known strength, and the proportions below will need adjusting to taste.
- Ounces, fluid or weightFountain books of this period generally meant fluid ounces for liquid extracts and foam. Fruit acid was sold both as dry crystals and as a solution, so the 1 ounce here is genuinely ambiguous; if working with dry citric or tartaric acid, start at a quarter of that and taste.
- Simple syrupTrade simple syrup was usually heavy, often near saturation and in the region of 2 parts sugar to 1 part water by weight. A thinner modern 1:1 syrup will taste weak and thin at the glass and will spoil faster.
- What the acid doesFruit acid supplies the tartness that makes a sugar syrup read as fruit rather than as candy. Add it last and in stages: too much flattens the pear aroma, too little leaves the drink cloying.
- What the foam doesSoda foam was typically a saponin preparation, usually from quillaia (soapbark), added so the drawn drink held a head. It is a texture ingredient only, contributes no flavor, and is used in very small amounts — here half an ounce to the gallon.
- Dilution at the glassFountain practice was about 1 to 1½ fluid ounces of syrup per glass, topped with carbonated water. A gallon therefore yields roughly 85 to 128 drinks.
- Keeping itA saturated sugar syrup with added acid keeps for weeks refrigerated in a clean sealed bottle. Cloudiness, ropiness or a fermented smell means it is done; a gallon is a great deal of syrup for a household.
Formulas like this one belong to the era when the soda fountain was a fixture of the American drugstore and its operators bought flavor in bottles from wholesale houses rather than making it from fruit. The four-line structure — extract for aroma, simple syrup for body and sweetness, fruit acid for tartness, foam for the head, alongside which fresh-fruit syrup formulas also appear in the fountain books of the period — is one common template of the period.