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Walnut Sundae
Make a regular sundae with crushed pineapple and top with a spoonful of whole or chopped walnut meats.
A fountain formula rather than a kitchen recipe: it assumes a counterman who already knows what "a regular sundae" is and needs only the variation. A few conventions of the trade need filling in.
- What "a regular sundae" meantAt the fountain this was a portion of ice cream, commonly vanilla, in a sundae glass dressed with the named fruit or syrup. Portion sizes varied; a No. 16 disher, a common fountain size, gave about 2 oz.
- Crushed pineappleFountain crushed pineapple was canned fruit packed in heavy syrup, often thinned or extended with additional simple syrup so it ladled cleanly. Canned crushed pineapple in juice is leaner than the original; drain it and add a spoonful of its syrup or a little sugar syrup to get the intended sweetness and flow.
- Walnut meats"Meats" simply means the shelled kernels. English (Persian) walnuts were the fountain standard; black walnuts are far more assertive and will overwhelm the pineapple.
- ToastingThe recipe does not say whether the nuts are raw or toasted. If you want to toast them, a few minutes in a moderate oven until fragrant, then fully cooled, is a modern option; cooled nuts hold their crispness better against the syrup.
- Order of assemblyFruit goes on before the nuts so the walnuts stay dry and audible. Reversing it buries them.
- YieldOne glass, one customer. Scale by the portion rather than by batch.
The instruction here is a single sentence: the fundamentals were assumed and only the variation needed printing. The sundae itself is generally traced to the 1890s, with several American towns claiming its invention and the name often said to derive from Sunday sales restrictions on soda water — a story repeated everywhere and documented nowhere firmly. A page like this documents a menu built by permutation: a handful of base creams, a rack of fruits and syrups, a row of nuts, and a name for every combination.