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Pineapple Frappe
Crushed pineapple, 2 ounces; acid phosphate, 3 dashes. Half fill a soda glass with crushed ice, pour over it the syrup and phosphate, fill with soda, stir and drain into a mineral glass.
A fountain formula written for someone standing at a marble counter with a syrup rail and a carbonator. Translating it is mostly a matter of knowing what the vessels and the word "soda" meant.
- "Crushed pineapple, 2 ounces"This means two fluid ounces (a quarter cup) of crushed-pineapple syrup from the fountain rail — fruit stewed with heavy sugar syrup, not plain canned pineapple. Canned crushed pineapple in juice will taste thin and sour here; drain it and stir it into an equal volume of simple syrup, or use a commercial pineapple syrup.
- Acid phosphateA dilute solution of phosphoric acid with calcium, magnesium and potassium salts, used at the fountain as a sour agent that also adds a dry mineral bite. It is still sold for cocktail and soda work. A "dash" was never a fixed measure; three dashes is on the order of an eighth to a quarter teaspoon. Without it the drink is merely sweet, so it is not an optional garnish.
- "Soda"Carbonated water from a pressurized draft arm, drawn far harder than a bottle pours. Use the coldest, most aggressively carbonated seltzer you can get and pour down the side of the glass to keep the gas.
- The two glassesA soda glass held roughly 10 to 12 ounces; a mineral glass was a smaller glass, often footed, of something like 6 to 8 ounces. Any 8-ounce stemmed or footed glass reads correctly.
- "Drain into a mineral glass"This is the hinge of the whole thing. The ice stays behind in the mixing glass — the frappé is served without it, so it arrives intensely cold, undiluted and still fizzing. A bar strainer or a julep strainer does the job.
- Crushed ice, not cubesThe point of packing the soda glass with crushed ice is maximum surface area for a few seconds of contact. Cubes will not chill the mix in the time available, and letting it sit to catch up flattens the carbonation.
- YieldOne drink of about six ounces. Assemble and serve immediately; there is nothing to be gained by holding it.
Soda fountain manuals of this kind were trade literature, printed for druggists rather than home cooks — the American drugstore fountain grew out of the pharmacy's business in mineral waters, which is likely why the glassware is called a "mineral glass" and why an acid solution sits on the rail beside the fruit syrups. Acid phosphate was a pharmacy product, promoted from the 1870s onward as a tonic, and it was taken up at the fountain as a souring agent with a character unlike lemon. Frappé comes from French frapper, to strike, and was used to mean iced or chilled; in this recipe it marks a drink worked with crushed ice and then strained off it, as distinct from a soda served over ice. Pineapple syrup was a common fountain flavour in this era, canning having made the fruit more widely available inland.