With regard to the quality of coffee, the best is the cheapest. Burn
it at home, in small quantities, taking care in using a close roaster, never
to fill it more than half. Turn the roaster, slowly at first, more rapidly
as the process advances, keeping up a lively fire. Burn it until of a light
chestnut color. Keep it in close canisters or bottles. Grind it as
wanted. Boil it in a vessel only half full, to prevent boiling over, in
proportion of one and a half ounces to a pint of water. Put in a few
hartshorn shavings or isinglass, if you will, but if the coffee is taken off
the fire while boiling, and set on again, alternately, until nothing remains
on the top but a clear bubble, and then some poured out to clear the
pipe and poured back again, it will be as fine as if cleared artificially.
Long boiling does not make coffee stronger, but destroys its color and
makes it turbid. In making coffee the broader the bottom of the pot
and the smaller the top the better it will prove.
Various are the methods of preparing this " beverage of Arabia ;"
but it will be found, after all, that there is no surer way of having coffee
clear and strong than by pursuing the plan here given : Beat up an egg
(two for a large pot) and mix it well with the coffee till you have formed
a ball ; fill the pot with cold water, allowing room enough to put in the
ingredients ; let it simmer very gently for an hour, but do not think of
stirring it, on any account. Just before it is required, put the pot on
the fire and warm it well ; but, as you value the true aroma, take care
that it does not boil. Pour off gently, and you will have as pure and as
strong an extract of the Indian berry as you can desire. Use white
sugar candy, in powder, in preference to sugar. Cream, if attainable ;
if not, boiled milk.
A celebrated cook gives this receipt for making a good cup of coffee :
Use Java and Mocha mixed. For each tablespoonful of coffee use
nearly a pint of boiling water. Beat the coffee up with the white of an
egg and half a tablespoonful of cold water. Pour the boiling water
over this and allow it to boil once. Take it from the fire and then
replace long enough to come to the boiling point.
A Frenchman roasts coffee, grinds it to a flour, moistens it slightly,
mixes it with twice its weight of sugar, and then presses it into tablets.
One of these tablets can be dissolved at any time.
Be careful in the choice of coffee pot and keep it clean. A carelessly
kept coffee pot will impart a rank flavor to the strongest infusion of the
best Java. Wash the coffee pot thoroughly every day and twice a week
boil borax and water in it for fifteen minutes.
GOOD COFFEE.
Put a quart of boiling water into the coffee pot, wet up a cup of
ground coffee with the white of an egg, add the eggshell and a little
cold water ; put this into the boiling hot water and boil fast ten min-
458 DRINKS.
utes ; then add a half cup cold water and set it before the hearth or
table to settle for five minutes ; pour it off carefully into the metal or
china coffee pot or urn.
VIENNA COFFEE.
With very little extra trouble mornings coffee can be greatly improved.
Beat the white of an egg to a stiff froth, mix with an equal quantity of
whipped cream and use in coffee instead of cream ; put in cream first,
then coffee and lastly this mixture.
IMPERIAL COFFEE. ✪ Chocolate
Page 386 · 4 recipe records on this page
Presented as published in 1886. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
With regard to the quality of coffee, the best is the cheapest. Burn it at home, in small quantities, taking care in using a close roaster, never to fill it more than half. Turn the roaster, slowly at first, more rapidly as the process advances, keeping up a lively fire. Burn it until of a light chestnut color. Keep it in close canisters or bottles. Grind it as wanted. Boil it in a vessel only half full, to prevent boiling over, in proportion of one and a half ounces to a pint of water. Put in a few hartshorn shavings or isinglass, if you will, but if the coffee is taken off the fire while boiling, and set on again, alternately, until nothing remains on the top but a clear bubble, and then some poured out to clear the pipe and poured back again, it will be as fine as if cleared artificially. Long boiling does not make coffee stronger, but destroys its color and makes it turbid. In making coffee the broader the bottom of the pot and the smaller the top the better it will prove.
Various are the methods of preparing this " beverage of Arabia ;" but it will be found, after all, that there is no surer way of having coffee clear and strong than by pursuing the plan here given : Beat up an egg (two for a large pot) and mix it well with the coffee till you have formed a ball ; fill the pot with cold water, allowing room enough to put in the ingredients ; let it simmer very gently for an hour, but do not think of stirring it, on any account. Just before it is required, put the pot on the fire and warm it well ; but, as you value the true aroma, take care that it does not boil. Pour off gently, and you will have as pure and as strong an extract of the Indian berry as you can desire. Use white sugar candy, in powder, in preference to sugar. Cream, if attainable ; if not, boiled milk.
A celebrated cook gives this receipt for making a good cup of coffee : Use Java and Mocha mixed. For each tablespoonful of coffee use nearly a pint of boiling water. Beat the coffee up with the white of an egg and half a tablespoonful of cold water. Pour the boiling water over this and allow it to boil once. Take it from the fire and then replace long enough to come to the boiling point.
A Frenchman roasts coffee, grinds it to a flour, moistens it slightly, mixes it with twice its weight of sugar, and then presses it into tablets. One of these tablets can be dissolved at any time.
Be careful in the choice of coffee pot and keep it clean. A carelessly kept coffee pot will impart a rank flavor to the strongest infusion of the best Java. Wash the coffee pot thoroughly every day and twice a week boil borax and water in it for fifteen minutes.
GOOD COFFEE.
Put a quart of boiling water into the coffee pot, wet up a cup of ground coffee with the white of an egg, add the eggshell and a little cold water ; put this into the boiling hot water and boil fast ten min-
458 DRINKS.
utes ; then add a half cup cold water and set it before the hearth or table to settle for five minutes ; pour it off carefully into the metal or china coffee pot or urn.
VIENNA COFFEE.
With very little extra trouble mornings coffee can be greatly improved. Beat the white of an egg to a stiff froth, mix with an equal quantity of whipped cream and use in coffee instead of cream ; put in cream first, then coffee and lastly this mixture.
IMPERIAL COFFEE.
Records on this page
ChocolateGood CoffeeVienna CoffeeImperial Coffee