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Raspberry Floss Syrup
American Raspberry Floss, 1 quart; Plain Syrup, 4 quarts; American Fruit Acid:, 1 ounce.
This is a fountain formula rather than a domestic recipe: a bulk flavoring syrup meant to be drawn by the ounce and finished with carbonated water at the counter. Two of the three ingredients are proprietary trade goods, so the working version depends on substitution.
- What "Floss" was"American Raspberry Floss" appears to be a proprietary flavouring preparation bought in from a supply house rather than something made in the shop; the surviving evidence does not tell us its exact composition, though a concentrated raspberry flavouring base is the obvious reading. Nothing is sold under that name today; a strong raspberry extract or a reduced raspberry puree strained clear is the nearest stand-in, and the proportion will need tasting rather than measuring.
- Plain syrupFountain "plain syrup" or "simple syrup" was generally heavier than a typical bar syrup today; published formulas vary, running from roughly equal weights of sugar and water up to something near two parts sugar to one, cooked just enough to dissolve. The high sugar concentration helps discourage fermentation and gives fountain sodas their body.
- Fruit acid"American Fruit Acid" was presumably a bought-in acid preparation, most likely citric or tartaric, though the recipe does not say and the strength is unknown. One ounce here is being added to five quarts of syrup, a small correction for tartness rather than a preservative. If substituting dry citric acid, start with far less than an ounce, since the trade product may well have been already in solution.
- Yield and dilutionThe formula makes five quarts of finished syrup. Fountain practice was commonly one to one and a half fluid ounces of syrup per eight-ounce glass, topped with carbonated water, so five quarts is roughly 105 to 160 drinks.
- Mixing orderThe recipe gives no method. Sensibly, add the acid last and stir it through cold rather than into hot syrup, since acid and heat together invert sugar.
- Keeping itA heavy acidified sugar syrup is reasonably stable but not sterile. Bottle it full to the shoulder, cap tight, and refrigerate; a home version made with real fruit rather than a commercial extract should be treated as a two-week syrup.
Formula books like this one were written for the man behind the counter, not the cook at home, and they read like a dispensing manual because that is what they are: a list of house blends built from a handful of jobbers' products. By the turn of the twentieth century the American drugstore fountain was a serious retail business, and supply houses sold soda men their flavoring concentrates, acids, foam preparations and colors ready-made, so a "recipe" often amounted to nothing more than proportions for combining branded goods. Raspberry was a staple fountain flavour, and a red syrup looked well in the glass jars ranged along the marble.