FoodNetArchive

The hearthstone; or, Life at home

1883

Page 350 · 3 recipe records on this page

Presented as published in 1883. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
Nutritious Coffee. — Half an ounce of ground coffeeTo Make Coffee, one pint of milk. Let the coffee be freshly ground; put it into a saucepan with the milk, which should be made nearly boiling before the coffee is put in, and boil both together for three minutes; clear it h\' pouring 540 THE hearthstone; or, life at home. some of it into a cup and then back again, and leave it on the hob for a few minutes to settle thoroughly. This coffee may be made still more nutritious by the addition of an egg well beaten and put into the coffee-cup. To MAKE Good Coffee {Mrs. Paiierson's recipe). — Take an ordi- nary teacup of ground coffee for four persons, mix with it a small egg ; pour in the coffee-pot. Add one quart of cold waterTo Make Good Coffee (Mrs. Patterson's Recipe), set back on the stove where it will not boil, but steep for half an hour, shaking occasionally to mix it. A few minutes before serving, add the de- sired quantity of boiling water and let it boil now for a few minutes ; take off, pour out some, and return it, let it stand a few minutes, and it is ready to serve. To have this, as all other coffee, good, the cof- fee-pot should be bright inside. Adulterated Coffee — how to Detect It. — Ground coffee affords a field for adulteration, and for this purpose chiccory, carrots, caramel, date-seeds, etc., are the substances most commonly used. The beans have of late years been skilfully imitated, but as coffee is mostly purchased ' in the ground condition, the chief point for the consumer is to be able to form some idea as to the character of the latter article, and the following are a few simple and reliable tests: Take a little of the coffee and press it between the fingers, or give it a squeeze in the paper in which it is bought; if genuine, it will not form a coherent mass, as coffee-grains are hard and do not readily adhere to each other ; but if the grains stick to each other and form a sort of" cake," you may be pretty sure of adulteration in the shape of chiccory, for the grains of chiccory are softer and more open, and adhere without difficulty when squeezed. Again, if you place a few grains in a saucer and moisten them with a little cold water, chiccory will very quickly become soft like bread-crumbs, while coffee will take a long time to soften. A third test : take a wine-glass or a tumbler full of water, and gently drop a pinch of the ground coffee on the surface of the water without stirring or agitating; genuine coffee will float for some time, whilst chiccory or any other soft root will soon sink ; and chiccory or caramel will cause a yellowish or COOKERY RECIPES. 54I brownish color to diffuse rapidly through the water, while pure coffee will give no sensible tint under such circumstances for a con- siderable length of time. " Coffee mixtures " or " coffee improvers " should be avoided. They seldom consist of anything but chiccory and caramel, " French coffee," so widely used at present, is generally ground coffee, the beans of which have been roasted with a certain amount of sugar, which, coating over the bean, has retained more of the original aroma than in ordinary coffee, but this, of course, at the expense of the reduced percentage of coffee due to the presence of the caramel.