Coffee Recipe

Old Java and Mocha coffee are the best kinds. Coffee should be put in an

iron pot, and dried over a moderate fire for several hours, before it is

roasted. It should be put at such a distance from the fire, as to be in

no danger of burning. When it has dried three or four hours, set the pot

on a hot bed of coals, and stir it constantly, until sufficiently

roasted, which is ascertained by biting one of the lightest colored

kernels--if it is brittle, the whole is done. Turn it out of the pot

immediately, into a box--cover it tight, to keep in the steam. A

coffee-roaster is better than a pot to roast coffee in, as it preserves

the fine aromatic flavor of the coffee, which in a great measure escapes

with the steam of the coffee, when roasted in an open pot. To make good

common coffee, allow a table-spoonful of it, when ground, to each pint

of water. Turn on the water boiling hot, and boil the coffee in a tin

pot, from twenty to twenty-five minutes--if boiled longer, it will not

taste fresh and lively. Let it stand, after being taken from the fire,

four or five minutes to settle, then turn it off carefully from the

grounds, into a coffee-pot or urn. When the coffee is put on the fire to

boil, a piece of fish-skin or isinglass, of the size of a nine-pence,

should be put in, or else the white and shell of half an egg, to a

couple of quarts of coffee. Many persons dislike to clear coffee with

fish-skin, thinking that it imparts an unpleasant taste to coffee, but

it will not, if properly prepared. The skin should be taken from mild

codfish, that has not been soaked, as the skin loses its clearing

properties by soaking. Rinse it in cold water, and dry it perfectly.

When dried, cut it into pieces of the size of a nine-pence. If torn off,

as it is wanted for use, too much is apt to be put in at once, and give

the coffee a bad taste. A piece of the size of a twelve and a half cent

piece, is sufficient to settle a couple of quarts of water. French

coffee is made in a German filter, the water is turned on boiling hot,

and one-third more coffee is necessary than when boiled in the common

way. Where cream cannot be procured for coffee, the coffee will be much

richer to boil it with a less proportion of water than the above rule,

and weaken it with boiling hot milk, when served out in cups.