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Ping-Pong Soda
Make an emulsion of 1 ounce of cocoanut oil in 3 ounces of mucilage of acacia, add gradually 3 pints of heavy foam syrup and 1 pint of chocolate gradually 3 pints of heavy foam syrup and 1 pint of chocolate syrup. (Heavy foam syrup for the above is made as follows. Dissolve 1 gallon of water and 1 ounce of gelatin and 12 pounds of sugar.) This drink should be very cold and should contain a generous quantity of ice cream.
This is a bulk fountain formula, not a single glass: it yields a gallon-plus of syrup meant to be dispensed an ounce or two at a time. The hinge is the emulsion — the coconut oil must be fully dispersed in the gum solution before any syrup goes in, or it will separate into a greasy film on the top of the glass.
- Mucilage of acaciaA pharmacy preparation of gum arabic dissolved in water, standardly about 35 percent gum by weight. Powdered gum arabic is still sold as a food ingredient; 1 ounce of gum stirred into 2 ounces of hot water gives roughly what is meant here. It is the emulsifier and it also stiffens the foam.
- Coconut oilThe coconut oil sold for this kind of work was generally a refined, comparatively bland fat, solid at room temperature and closer to modern refined coconut oil than to the fragrant virgin kind, which will dominate the chocolate. Melt it and add it warm to the gum solution, whisking hard, or the emulsion will not take.
- The duplicated lineThe typesetting repeats "gradually 3 pints of heavy foam syrup and 1 pint of chocolate." Only one addition is intended: 3 pints foam syrup, 1 pint chocolate syrup.
- Foam syrup proportions12 pounds of sugar to 1 gallon of water dissolves far more easily with heat. Bloom the gelatin in a little of the water, heat the rest, dissolve the sugar in it, then stir the gelatin in off the heat. The finished syrup is very heavy.
- Gelatin quantityAn ounce of gelatin is about four envelopes of modern powdered gelatin. It is there for foam stability, not to set anything; the syrup should stay pourable.
- Keeping itA sugar syrup this concentrated resists spoilage, but the gelatin, gum and oil do not. A batch this size was presumably meant for a fountain with steady turnover. Refrigerate it and treat it as perishable.
- Yield and serviceAbout 4 pints of finished syrup, enough for roughly 30 to 40 sodas at 1.5 to 2 ounces each. Draw the syrup into a cold glass, add a scoop of ice cream, then fill with carbonated water under coarse stream to raise the head.
History: The name points to a period: table tennis, marketed as Ping-Pong under a trademark held in the United States by Parker Brothers, was a craze in 1901 and 1902, and fountain syrups were often named after whatever was in the papers. What the recipe documents is the "foam soda" -- a fountain fashion for drinks bodied with gum arabic, gelatin and a trace of fat so that the carbonation held a thick, lasting head rather than fizzing away. Soda dispensers of the period were often druggists as much as cooks, which is why the ingredient list reads like a prescription: mucilage of acacia was a standard shelf item in any pharmacy, used to suspend oils in medicines long before anyone put it in a chocolate soda.