Cooking and castle-building

As I took the coffee she handed me, I answered, "At the time of making, nothing but water is added to the coffee ; but at the time of browning, one egg is mixed with a pound of coffee. Coffee can be settled perfectly with a spoonful of cold water ; but it stays settled better, and is not so easily disturbed or roiled, where egg is used. A cup of first-rate coffee, Emeline, is something rarely found on the average American table ; nor is it surprising, perhaps, when we consider that making coffee is a delicate matter, and that the beverage is so easily spoiled, at any point from the beginning to the end of the process. Several things are requisite in order to have good coffee. First, the coffee must be of good quality-, carefully picked over, and cleaned by rubbing in a dry towel. Next, it must be properl}^ roasted. There are very perfect mechanisms for browning coffee ; but any woman can roast it perfectly in the oven, if she attends to it. In a medium-sized dripping-pan a pound can be roasted at a time. The person roasting the coffee should give it her undivided attention while it is in the oven, otherwise she will often forget, and the coffee be spoiled. Coffee should roast slowly at first, an occasional shaking to change the position of the grains being all the attention it requires. After remaining ten or fifteen minutes in the oven, the heat may be increased, and the shaking must be done more frequently. Towards the last it must be looked at every few minutes, lest unawares it surprise you with too dark a browning. But how brown it should be, depends somewhat upon the taste of the drinker and the kind of coffee used. Eio will bear a browner tinge than Java. If the coffee, when made, is pale in color, and tastes of the bean, — that is, has a raw taste, — it is not sufficiently roasted. If it is black, and tastes bitter and burnt, it is overdone. It is a good plan to keep a spoonful of coffee unground, from one roasting till the next, in order to compare the newly roasted with it. When the coffee is roasted, pour it into an earthen dish to cool ; and when so cool that you can clasp a handful of it tightly in your palm and feel it only warm — not hot — add to it a fresh egg, and with a fork stir it until perfectly mixed and each kernel has a share of the egg. The warmth of the coffee should be just sufficient to dry the egg adhering to it, and not cook it. When diy, the egg does not interfere with the grinding. Eofff used in this manner is neither so troublesome nor expensive as when added at the time of making the coffee. Another convenient, inexpensive method is to wash eggs before breaking, and preserve the shells for settling coffee.