The Queen Cook Book: A Careful Compilation of Recipes and Practical ...

Cocoa or chocolate nuts are the seeds of Theobroma cacao, a handsome tree from fifteen to twenty feet in heighth growing in Mexico, the West Indies and South America. These seeds are roasted and ground and the oil partly extracted. These seeds make our cocoa. To make good cocoa allow one teaspoon to every cup of milk* Put the quantity of milk according to the number of persons to drink it in a double boiler. When it boils wet the cocoa, work it fine, put it in the hot milk and boil ten minutes and let it settle. ift. 32 The Queen Cook Book Chocolate. Chocolate is the cocoa nut pounded to a paste in a hot mortar; mixed with sugar, starch, cinnamon and vanilla it forms the chocolate of commerce. To make good chocolate take one tablespoon of the sweetened grated chocolate to each cup of milk. Put the required quantity of milk in double boiler; when it is hot wet the powder fine, put it in and boil fifteen minutes. Serve with sweetened whipped cream, two tablespoons on top of each cup. Coffee. Coffee is the seed of the coffee tree which grows wild in southern Abyssinia and western Africa in great profusion, and there it has been in use from very remote times. It attains the height of eight to twenty and sometimes thirty feet. To increase its produc- tiveness and for convenience of gathering in cultiva- tion it is kept as low as five feet. Its trunk is covered with a grayish bark, and its white blossoms growing from the angles of the leaf stalk, three to four in number, resembling in form the jasmine blossoms, often suddenly appear scattered among the dark leaves like flakes of snow. The plant being an ever- green, the foliage is always fresh. Like the orange, it has blossoms and green and ripe fruit of every grade at the same time, so the ripe coffee may be gathered at various seasons, but the real harvests are usually two. The fruit when ripe becomes red and finally dark purple. It resembles a cherry. Each berry contains two seeds, their flat sides are opposed to each other in the center of the pulp. In the West Indies the fruit is picked by hand, but in Arabia, where no ' ains prevail to beat it from the trees, it is allowed to The Queen Cook Book 33 remain till ready to fall, and is then shaken off upon cloths spread upon the ground. Its perfect ripeness may be one reason of its superior quality. The cul- tivation ,of coffee is widely diffused throughout the trofics. Coffee should only be scorched thoroughly through to a light brown, not a dark chestnut brown. A slight excess of heat injures the quality of the coffee. Brown it in a sheet iron pan in the oven, stirring it often and watch it closely, about one pound at a time, As soon as browned empty in a tight box. Brown only enough at a time to last one week for your family. If you buy your coffee roasted do so in small quantities. Keep it in a tightly covered fruit jar, and grind just before using; grind line, not floured, as it is quicker settled Mocha coffee, which is known by its small, roundish grains, agreeable odor and flavor, is preferred to all others. The Java, a large, flat grain, is next in quality. Some like it mixed three- fourths Java, one-fourth Mocha, or one-half each. The Brazilian coffees are between the two in size and inferior to both in flavor. It is preferable to purchase coffee unroasted, as the roasted and ground are mostly adulterated. The darker the coffee is roasted the more injurious its effects. Some people can not drink it at all ; some can only drink it in the morning. Some people of a full habit can not use it because it pro- duces dizziness', on others it produces nervousness and others wakefulness. To Make Coffee.