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Prepared Spice
Powdered allspice, ½ ounce; powdered nutmeg, 1 ounce; powdered cloves, 1 ounce; powdered cinnamon, 1 ounce. You don't want accidental trade on soda-you want regular custom. The fountain tells people whether you are making a specialty of soda or not.
A fountain compounding formula rather than a drink: a house blend of sweet spices kept behind the counter for dusting and flavouring. The last two sentences are trade advice that the compiler ran on into the formula, not part of the method.
- Weigh it, don't scoop itThe proportions are by weight, and ground spices differ enormously in density. As a rough guide, 1 ounce of ground cinnamon is about 3½ tablespoons, 1 ounce of nutmeg about 4; the ½ ounce of allspice is around 2½ tablespoons.
- YieldThe whole batch is 3½ ounces, roughly 100 g, or a little under a cup once blended. That is a great deal of ground spice for a home cook working through it a pinch at a time — quartering it is sensible.
- The blend is nutmeg-forwardThree spices in equal weight -- Nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon are each 1 ounce, with allspice at half that, and cloves are the most aggressive of the four. Sift the four together twice through a fine strainer so no pocket of clove ends up in a single drink.
- Freshness is the whole pointPre-ground allspice and nutmeg lose their volatile oils within a few months, and a fountain blend was meant to be conspicuously aromatic. Grate the nutmeg and grind the cloves and allspice yourself, and make small batches.
- What it was forWhat it was probably for -- A blend of this kind would suit hot soda, egg drinks, milk shakes, hot chocolate, mulled cider and spiced syrups — the winter side of the fountain trade — though the text itself says nothing about its use. It works as a general baking or pumpkin-pie spice, though it carries no ginger.
- StorageAirtight glass, dark cupboard, away from the range. In an open fountain shaker the aroma will fade quickly.
Soda fountains of the early twentieth century faced a plain seasonal problem: cold drinks stopped selling in December. The trade answer was "hot soda" — beef tea, clam bouillon, hot chocolate, spiced milk and egg drinks drawn from a heated urn beside the syrup rail — and a jar of prepared spice was often kept for finishing them. The four spices here are the familiar Anglo-American sweet spices, close to the mixed spice and pudding spice blends of British tradition, though the modern pumpkin-pie blend usually adds ginger. The stray lines about accidental trade and regular custom show what these manuals often were: part formulary, part business primer for the druggist who ran the counter, arguing that a well-kept fountain was a permanent department rather than a summer sideline.