To Make Coffee.

* Exported from MasterCook *

TO MAKE COFFEE.

Recipe By : Household Cyclopedia of General Information 1881
Serving Size : 1 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Coffee

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
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The best coffee is imported from Mocha. It is said to owe much of its
superior quality to being kept long. Attention to the following
circumstances is likewise necessary. 1. The plant should be grown in a dry
situation and climate. 2. The berries ought to be thoroughly ripe before
they are gathered. 3. They ought to be well dried in the sun; and 4. Kept at
a distance from any substance (as spirits, spices, dried fish, etc.) by
which the taste and flavor of the berry may be injured.
To drink coffee in perfection, it should be made from the best Mocha or
Java, or both mixed, carefully roasted, and after cooling for a few minutes,
reduced to powder, and immediately infused, the decoction will then be of a
superior description. But for ordinary use, Java, Laguayra, Maracaibo, Rio
and other grades of coffee may be used. An equal mixture of Mocha, Java and
Laguayra make an excellent flavor. We have been recently shown (1865) some
samples of African coffee from Liberia, which is said to possess a very
superior flavor, The following mode of preparing it may be adopted:

1. The berries should be carefully roasted, by a gradual application of
heat, browning, but not burning them.

2. Grinding the coffee is preferable to pounding, because the latter process
is thought to press out and leave on the sides of the mortar some of the
richer oily substances' which are not lost by grinding.

3. A filtrating tin or silver pot, with double sides, between which hot
water must be poured, to prevent the coffee from cooling, as practised in
Germany, is good. Simple decoction, in this implement, with boiling water is
all that is required to make a cup of good coffee; and the use of isinglass,
the white of eggs, etc., to fine the liquor, is quite unnecessary. By this
means, also, coffee is made quicker than tea.

Generally, too little powder of the berry is given, It requires about one
small cup of ground coffee to make four cups of decoction for the table.
This is at the rate of an ounce of good powder to four common coffee cups.
When the powder is put in the bag, as many cups of boiling water are poured
over it as may be wanted, and if the quantity wanted is very small, so that
after it is filtrated it does not reach the lower end of the bag the liquor
must be poured back three or four times, till it has acquired the necessary
strength.

Another Method. - Pour a pint of boiling water on an ounce of coffee; let it
boil five or six minutes, then pour out a cupful two or three times and
return it again, put two or three isinglass chips into it, or a lump or two
of fine sugar; boil it five minutes longer. Set the pot by the fire to keep
hot for ten minutes, and the coffee will be beautifully clear. Some like a
small bit of vanilla. Cream or boiled milk should always be served with
coffee.

In Egypt, coffee is made by pouring boiling rater upon ground coffee in the
cup; to which only sugar is added. For those who like it extremely strong,
make only eight cups from three ounces. If not fresh roasted, lay it before
a fire till hot and dry; or put the smallest bit of fresh butter into a
preserving-pan; when hot throw the coffee into it, and toss it about till it
be freshened.

Coffee most certainly promotes wakefulness, or, in other words, it suspends
the inclination to sleep.

A very small cup of coffee, holding about a wineglassfull, called by the
French une demi tasse, drunk after dinner very strong, without cream or
milk, is apt to promote digestion.

Persons afflicted with asthma have found great relief, and oven a cure, from
drinking very strong coffee, and those of a phlegmatic habit would do well
to take it for breakfast. It is of a rather drying nature, and with
corpulent habits it would also be advisable to take it for breakfast.



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