Dr. Pepper’s Pepsin Bitters
07/22/2009 12:08 am | GeneralSoda has become a bit of a hobby for me — check out my flickr stream to see what I've been trying lately — so I was surprised that news of this auction slipped under my radar.
Apparently, back in May there was an auction for what was claimed to be an early recipe for Dr. Pepper: a pharmacist's notebook with a recipe titled Dr. Pepper's Pepsin Bitters. The date, location, and even the letterhead on some of the recipes correspond to the exact place where the well-kept secret of the Dr. Pepper recipe would have originated.
This was a perfect target for my internet sleuthing itch. I was determined to figure out what exactly that recipe was. Let's make some Dr. Pepper!
A high-res scan of the recipe is on the auction page. Unfortunately, the recipe is written in a 19th century pharmacist shorthand, and the handwriting isn't the most legible.. Wikipedia, here we come.
Several hours of research later, here's what I've come up with:
The recipe uses an apothecary system for measurements. The squiggly-looking '3' is the symbol for 'ounce'.
The quantity of measures is a mix of roman numerals, fractions, and apothecary shorthand. ℥iii means 3 ounces, ℥ss means half an ounce. "Cong." is short for congius, meaning 'gallon' (though I'm not sure if it is the equivalent of a modern US gallon). So "cong 3½" means "three and a half gallons". The 'o' stands for pints, so "Syrup oiii" means 3 pints of syrup.
The other strange term in the recipe is "Aq. Dist", which turns out to mean aqua distillata, or distilled water.
After all this, here's what we come up with:
Dr. Pepper's Pepsin Bitters
- Gentian Root, ground. 2 ounces.
- Bitter Orange Peel, ground. 2 ounces.
- Wahoo Bark, ground. 2 ounces.
- Sweet Flag Root, ground. 1 ounce.
- Mandrake Root, 2 ounces.
- Cardamom, Half an ounce.
- Cloves, Half an ounce.
- Coriander, Half an ounce.
- Cinnamon Bark, Half an ounce.
- Diluted Alcohol, 3.5 gallons.
- Simple Syrup, 3 pints.
- Glycerine, 2 pints.
- Distilled Water, 5 gallons (or as much as necessary)
Macerate with the dilute alcohol for five days. Filter, then add the syrup, glycerine, and water. Dissolve 640 grain (about 1.5 ounces) of Wyeth's pepsin in water, add it in. Then pour into 16 ounce bottles.
So what's the conclusion? Is this Dr. Pepper?
Well, obviously not. First, there definitely aren't "23 flavors" here as Dr. Pepper's recipe advertises. Second, this recipe is anywhere between 10 and 80 proof, depending on how diluted your "dilute alcohol" is. Third, I'd be willing to bet that one of the ingredients of modern Dr. Pepper is artificial almond extract, and I don't see anything on the list that might taste similar. Then there's the fact that mandrake root is poisonous...
So I believe the Dr. Pepper Snapple spokesman when he says that this isn't the Dr. Pepper we know today, but I would be willing to believe it was an early recipe. Just as the first recipe for Coca-Cola contained both coca and kola bean, this could very well have been the recipe that was modified and toned-down into a soft drink as prohibition picked up. Perhaps if I can find replacements for the more questionable ingredients, we may have a pretty interesting beverage recipe here.