Making Coffee

Ingredients

• one teaspoon to each person
• half pint water
• a heaping tablespoon ordinary ground coffee for each person
• three tablespoons of the pure ground berry
• each quart water

Method

1. 1

   To make coffee, use a patent pot or a sack for the powder.

2. 2

   For each person, use one teaspoon of coffee with half a pint of boiling water.

3. 3

   Mix well with an egg or codfish skin if desired.

4. 4

   Boil for five minutes, then simmer for ten to fifteen minutes.

5. 5

   Add the remainder of the boiling water before serving.

6. 6

   Alternatively, stir coffee directly into boiling water, boil, and then pour out and back in to clarify.

Nutrition per serving

Estimated from matched ingredients across 6 servings.

As published

This recipe was extracted from The new practical housekeeping (1890) by Estelle Woods Wilcox, page 147. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

MAKING COFFEE. To make coffee from the powder it will be necessary to use a patent pot or put the powder in the sack described below. The pow- 12 178 DRINKS. deris claimed to be much more economical than the ordinary ground coflfee, requiring only about one-third as much, or one teaspoon to each person (with half pint water), and is also much more quickly made, the boiling water filtering through and the coffee being ready to serve within a minute or two after it is put in the sack. The old- fashioned way of making coffee by boiling is still practiced by prob- ably a majority of housekeepers. "One for the pot" and a heaping tablespoon ordinary ground coffee-for each person, is the usual al- lowance. Mix well, either with a part or the whole of an egg when X)nly a part is used putting in the shell also, and when eggs are scarce some are careful to wash shells before breaking, and keep for this purpose, crushing three or four into the pot instead of the egg ; or codfish skin washed, dried, and cut in inch pieces, may be used and enough cold water to thoroughly moisten it, place in a heated, well-scalded coffee-boiler, pour in half the quantity of boiling water needed, allowing one pint less of water than there are tablespoons of coffee. Boll a canton flannel cloth tightly — one must be kept for this purpose and washed and dried after using — ^and stop up the nose or spout, thus keeping in all the coffee flavor. Boil rather fast five minutes, stirring down from the top and sides as it boils up, and place on back part of stove or range where it will only simmer for ten or fifteen minutes longer. When ready to serve add the re- mainder of the boiling water Some think the flavor is better pre- served to put a small quantity of cold water with the ooffee, bring it to boiling point and add sufficient boiling water. Or, another method of making coffee without clearing is to stir the coffee directly into the boiling water, boil and simmer as above, then pour out a large cupful, and, holding it high over the pot, pour it in again ; repeat this, and set it on stove where it will keep hot, without simmering. The coffee will be clear if instructions are carefully followed. Another method is to pour boiling water over the coffee, cover close- ly, boil one minute, remove to the side of the stove a few minutes to settle, and serve. Allow two heaping tablespoons coffee to a pint water* The less time the coffee is cooked the more coffee of ordi- nary grinding is required, but the finer the flavor. The late Profes- sor Blot protested against boiling the coffee at all, as in his opinion the aroma was evaporated, and only the bitter flavor left. The ad- vantages of boiled coffee are that when the egg is used the yolk gives a very rich flavor, and when the milk or cream is added the DRINKS. 179 coffee has a rich, yellow look, which is pleasing. It has also a pe- culiar flavor, which many people, prefer to. the flavor gained by any. other process. The disadvantages are that the egg coats the dry coffee, and when the hot water is added the coating becomes hard, and a great deal of the best of the coffee remains in the grounds after boiling, compelling one to use nearly double the amount of coffee. Also, in boiling, much of the fine flavor is lost in the steam that escapes from the pat, and the tannic acid of the coffee is ex- trjjtcted, which in combination with the milk or cream taken with it hardens the albumen they contain into an indigestible compound that is excessively irritating to the delicate internal membranes. For these reasons the practice of making coffee without boiling is gradually becoming more general. And for this a fair proportion for good coffee is three tablespoons of the pure ground berry to each quart water

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