Coffee

Ingredients

• a pound of coffee
• one egg
• a medium-sized cup and a half of water
• a large tablespoon heaping full of ground coffee

Method

1. 1

   At the time of browning, mix one egg with a pound of coffee.

2. 2

   Measure a large tablespoon of ground coffee to a medium-sized cup and a half of water.

3. 3

   Beat the egg well and add cold water to wet the mixture.

4. 4

   Place in the pot and fill a third full with cold water.

5. 5

   Steep slowly, stirring occasionally.

6. 6

   Just before boiling, add more cold water until the pot is full.

7. 7

   Let it boil once, settle, and serve.

Nutrition per serving

As published

This recipe was extracted from Cooking and castle-building (1880) by Emma P. Ewing, Marietta McPherson Greenough, page 33. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

coffee, which is so perfectly clear, has nothing used for settling it, but a spoonful of cold water?" 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. Sev- eral 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 84 COOKING AND CASTLE-BUHiDrnG. 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, other- wise 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 suffi- ciently 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 per- fectly mixed and each kernel has a share of the egg. The warmth of the coffee should be just BREAKFAST-TABLE GOSSIP. 85 sufficient to dry the egg adliering to it, and not cook it. When diy, the egg does not interfere with the irrindinff. 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 set- tling coffee. "The grinding of coffee is an important consid- eration. If ground very coarse, much of the strength remains in the grounds, some of which are often seen floating about in your cup, in an independent manner, and an isolated condition. If ground too fine, it will be muddy in spite of everything. Of course a happy medium is right. Some ladies have coffee prepared in one pot and poured into another before sending to tal3le ; but this is a bad practice, for every time coffee is exposed to the air it loses some of its aroma and excellence. When I have a fragrant perfume of coffee in my chamber while dressing, I take it for granted that I shall miss at breakfast the delicious aroma that has been so freely exhaled all over the house. If it is borne to me on the wings of the morning up three flights of stairs, how can I hope to find it concentrated in my cup at breakfast? Really excellent coffee can be made in various ways. The most perfect method of making it, perhaps, is by dripping the boiling water through the coffee. S6 COOKING AND CASTLE-BUILDING. But rare coffee may be made in the ordinary manner of steeping, if it is not allowed to boil enough to extract the bitter, or waste the aroma. There is one thing you must insist upon, Cousin Emeline, if you would have the best quality of coffee and tea ; namely, the pots must be kept clean on the in- side. If carefully washed every time they are used, they wdll not become dark and coated Avith deposits. Coffee made very strong, and diluted with boiled milk instead of water, is liked by many. That is a French style worthy of imita- tion. Mixed coffees are also considered by many finer in flavor than a single sort. I have tried various combinations, and like Rio and Java in equal proportions — or two parts Eio, two parts Java, and one part Mocha. To be most perfect, I think the different kinds should be roasted sep- arately, and mixed afterAvard. But my advice to housekeepers is, experiment. Find out for your- selves what is best, and don't believe implicitly in any cook-book, not even Cousin Kate's. Use cook-books as helps, as hints, but not as infallible guides, and Avork out your salvation in cookery by the use of your OAvn brains. A week's supply of coffee may be broAvned and ground at one time, if it is kept in air-tight cans or canisters. "Most cooks use too little coffee. I allow a large tablespoon heaping full of ground coffee to a medium-sized cup and a half of water

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.