Hand-Book of Practical Cookery for Ladies and Professional Cooks Part 10

A good proportion is: to one pound of Java add about four ounces of Mocha, and four ounces of one or two other kinds.

Good coffee, as well as tea, is said to possess exhilarating properties.

Its use was not known in Europe before 1650. Neither was the use of sugar, tobacco, and brandy.

Good coffee cannot be made but by leaching.

The easiest utensil is what is called a filter, or coffee-pot, or biggin, according to locality, with a top to diffuse the water.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The coffee-pot called "the French balance" makes the best-flavored coffee, but it is an expensive one.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

There are several good filters, but the great majority or the people find them too complicated for daily use.

The bottom of the filter should be of silvered bra.s.s-gauze instead of perforated tin, as it is generally.

Gauze-holes being much smaller than those of perforated tin, the coffee can be ground much finer, and therefore, all the strength and aroma can be had; while if ground coa.r.s.e, it is utterly impossible.

Good coffee cannot be made in a utensil often but wrongly called a _coffee-pot_, which is nothing but a pot, and something like a tea-pot.

With such a utensil, the grounds must be boiled; and as no liquor can be boiled without allowing the steam to escape (the steam made by boiling coffee being its aroma), therefore the best part of the coffee is evaporated before it is served.

Never grind your coffee until ready to make it.

No matter how air-tight you keep it, the aroma evaporates or is absorbed.

Coffee can be ground and made as soon as cool; but it is better to let it stand for about twenty-four hours after being roasted.

If kept as air-tight as possible in a tin-box, it will keep very well for about a week.

Never buy ground coffee except when you cannot help it.

By taking a pinch of ground coffee and rolling it between wetted fingers, it will remain in grains, if pure; and will form in a ball if foreign matters are mixed with it.

TO ROAST.

In roasting, good coffee swells about thirty-three per cent., and loses about sixteen per cent. in weight.

Roast once a week or oftener.

Put coffee in the apparatus (cylinder, or drum, or roaster), the quant.i.ty to be according to the size of the roaster, or according to how much is needed. Have a rather slow fire at first; when the coffee has swollen, augment the fire, turning, shaking, tossing the roaster, sometimes fast, sometimes slowly, and take from the fire a little before it is roasted enough; the roasting will be finished before the coffee gets cold and before taking it from the roaster, which you continue turning and shaking as if it were yet on the fire.

A charcoal fire is the handiest, and more easily regulated.

It is well roasted when it evaporates a pleasing odor and when of a brownish color.

Then take it from the roaster, spread it on a matting or on a piece of cloth, and put it in a tin-box as soon as cold.

It is exceedingly difficult, if not utterly impossible, to roast coffee properly by machinery, and for two reasons: in the first place, there is too much of it in the cylinder to roast evenly, some berries are burned, others not roasted enough; the other is, that being turned by machinery, the cylinder is turned regularly and is neither shaken nor tossed; and even if there were not too much coffee in it, some berries would be much more roasted than others.

TO MAKE.

Set a kettle of cold water on the fire. Place the ground coffee in the filter, and as soon as the water begins to boil, pour just enough of it over the coffee to wet it. Put the kettle back on the fire, and again, at the first boiling, pour it over the coffee rather slowly, and till you have poured enough water to furnish the quant.i.ty of coffee required.

If the water does not pa.s.s through fast enough, just stop pouring for a few seconds, that is, long enough to put the kettle back on the fire and start the boiling again. As soon as the water has pa.s.sed through, the coffee is made. The quant.i.ty of coffee must be according to the strength you wish it, and the quant.i.ty wanted, or according to age and const.i.tution.

Four teaspoonfuls make a quart of very good coffee for breakfast. It would be rather strong for children, but can be diluted to a proper state with milk.

No matter what quant.i.ty of coffee is put in the filter, the liquor must be clear; the more is used, the blacker the substance is, but it must never be muddy. If muddy at all, be sure you have not used good coffee.

One pound of good coffee to a quart of water, should make black but clear coffee.

CAFe AU LAIT.

This is coffee and milk for breakfast. The milk is set on the fire in a tin saucepan, and taken off when it rises; then mixed with the coffee, either in the cup or any kind of vessel. The proportions are pint for pint.

CAFe NOIR.

_Cafe noir_ is the name given to the coffee taken after dinner. It is generally made rather strong. Gentlemen sometimes put liquor in it--a gla.s.s of brandy, or rum, or kirschwa.s.ser; and ladies, a little cold milk.

Taken fifteen or twenty minutes after dinner, it helps digestion. It excites the faculties of the mind, and gives what physiologists call "agreeable sensations."

Coffee is nutritious, and to a certain extent prevents waste of the system.

CHOCOLATE.

The quant.i.ty of chocolate for a certain quant.i.ty of milk is according to taste. Two ounces of chocolate make a good cup of it, and rather thick.

Break the chocolate in pieces, put it in a tin saucepan with a tablespoonful of water to an ounce of chocolate, and set it on a rather slow fire. Stir now and then till thoroughly melted.

While the chocolate is melting, set the quant.i.ty of milk desired in another tin saucepan on the fire, and as soon as it rises and when the chocolate is melted, as directed above, turn the milk into the chocolate, little by little, beating well at the same time with an egg-beater. Keep beating and boiling after being mixed, for three or four minutes; take off and serve.

If both chocolate and milk are good, it will be frothy; and no better or more nutritious drink can be had.

CHOCA.

Choca is nothing more nor less than one cup of coffee and milk mixed with a cup of chocolate, and for breakfast.

COCOA.