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Sarsaparilla Syrup (II)
American Concentrated Sarsaparilla Syrup, 1 quart; Plain Syrup, 3 quarts; American Soda Foam, 1 ounce.
This is a fountain formula rather than a kitchen recipe: four parts of finished syrup, drawn an ounce or so at a time and shot with carbonated water. Everything hinges on what the two proprietary products actually were.
- Yield and dilutionThe formula makes a gallon of finished syrup. Period fountain practice was a draw of about 1 to 1½ fluid ounces of syrup in a 6- to 8-ounce glass, filled with charged water — so a gallon works out to roughly 85 to 128 drinks.
- Plain syrupThe trade term for simple syrup at soda-fountain density, much heavier than a modern 1:1 syrup: fountain formulas commonly call for somewhere in the region of 6½ to 8 lb of sugar per gallon of finished syrup, close to saturation. That high sugar concentration is what keeps the syrup from thinning out and helps it resist spoilage.
- American Concentrated Sarsaparilla SyrupA branded compound, not a single botanical. Fountain sarsaparilla flavor of this era was typically built on sassafras and birch or wintergreen with licorice and often methyl salicylate, with little or no actual sarsaparilla root. No modern equivalent exists off the shelf; a sarsaparilla or root beer concentrate sold for soda making is the nearest substitute, and you will need to test the ratio, as concentrations vary widely.
- Sassafras and safroleIf you are compounding your own flavor from historical notes, note that safrole — the principal aromatic of sassafras root bark — was prohibited as a food additive in the United States in 1960. Commercial sassafras flavoring sold today is safrole-free extract.
- American Soda FoamA foaming agent, added at only 1 ounce per gallon. Proprietary soda foams of this period were generally saponin preparations, usually from quillaia (soap bark) or yucca and sometimes with egg albumen, though the make-up of this particular brand is not given. Their whole job was head retention, giving the drink a creamy collar when the carbonated water hit it. Quillaia extract is still permitted in beverages at controlled levels and is sold as a foaming agent for craft soda.
- Substituting the foamerThe foam is cosmetic. Leaving it out gives a perfectly good drink that simply looks flatter in the glass; there is no need to improvise with soap-bark of unknown strength.
- Mixing and storageStir the concentrate and foamer into the plain syrup cold — heat drives off the volatile birch and wintergreen notes. Bottled and refrigerated, a syrup at fountain density should keep for months; watch for cloudiness, which may mean fermentation or simply that the flavour oils have separated.
Sarsaparilla takes its name from the Spanish zarzaparrilla, usually explained as "little bramble vine," and originally referred to the roots of Smilax species imported from Mexico and Central America, which were sold through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as a blood purifier and treatment for syphilis and rheumatism. That medicinal reputation is why the flavor arrived at the American drugstore counter at all: the soda fountain grew out of the pharmacy, and its early drinks carried the aura of a tonic. By the time books like this one were compiled, however, sarsaparilla had become a flavor rather than a remedy, and the flavor was largely a fiction — the characteristic taste came from sassafras, birch and wintergreen, with the root itself often absent. The recipe's reliance on two branded preparations, an extract and a proprietary foamer, is itself typical of the period, when fountain manuals often doubled as catalogues for the supply houses connected with them.