Foods and Household Management: A Textbook of the Household Arts

by Helen Kinne; Anna M. Cooley

Fig. 23.—A pot for boiling coffee and a pot for drip coffee. Courtesy of the Brambhall Dean Co.

Fig. 24.—A coffee percolator. Courtesy of Landers, Frary and Clark.

Ingredients.—Ground coffee, water, cold or boiling, white of egg or egg shell for boiled coffee. The coffee should be ground to medium fineness for boiled coffee, to a finer powder for the percolated and drip coffee.

Proportions.—One part of coffee to 5 or 6 of water, depending upon the strength desired. One egg shell, or half the white of an egg to 1 cup of ground coffee.

Method 1.

Boiling.—Measure the coffee and water. Stir the white or the shell of an egg with the coffee, adding a little of the water, put this into the pot, add the remaining water cold, stir thoroughly, allow the water to rise slowly to the boiling point, and to boil one minute, remove the pot from the fire, pour in a small amount of cold water, and let the coffee stand for five minutes or until the grounds settle. During the cooking close the lip with clean soft paper if it has no lid. The actual boiling is continued for a brief period only, and coffee made by this method is considered by some people to have a flavor lacking in drip or percolator coffee. The egg is added to clarify the coffee. Pour off the liquid coffee from the grounds, and keep hot until it is time to serve it.

A second method differs from this in that the water is poured on at the boiling temperature, allowed to reach the boiling point in two or three minutes, and boiled for five minutes. The first gives uniformly better results. It is true, however, that different kinds of coffee need different treatment, and there is room here for much experimenting.

Method 2.

Drip coffee.—In this method the coffee is put in a receptacle above, the water passes slowly through, collecting in the pot below, from which it is served. Stand the lower part of the pot in a pan of hot water, or where it will keep hot. Measure the water, and bring it to the boiling point. Heat the ground coffee slightly, put it in the upper section of the pot, and pour on the water very slowly. Of course, the water is not actually boiling when it touches the coffee. If the liquid coffee is not strong enough, pour it from the lower part and pass it through the grounds again. This is the French method, and is an excellent way to prepare after-dinner coffee.