Whatever variety of tea used, do not allow the beverage to boil; put the tea in a black earthen tea-pot previously heated; pour boiling water over it; let it draw for two minutes, and the process is at an end. Charitable institutions would find it advantageous to grind tea to powder; in this way one half the quantity of tea ordinarily used is saved.
Cocoa and Chocolate are obtained from the seeds of Theobroma cacao. The active principle is theobromine, a substance which resembles the alkaloids of coffee and tea, except that it contains more nitrogen than theine and caffeine. Another important difference between cacao (not cocoa) and coffee or tea is the large amount of fat or cacao-butter contained in the bean.
The seed receptacle resembles a large black cucumber, containing from ten to thirty leaves, which are roasted like coffee. The husks are then taken off, and are called cacao shells. The best cacao is made from the bean after the husks are removed.
Chocolate is the finely-ground powder from the kernels mixed to a paste, with or without sugar. The product of this seed, being rich in fatty matters, is more difficult to digest, and many dyspeptics cannot use it unless the fats have been removed, which is now done by manufacturers. Nearly all brands of cacao and chocolate are recommended to be prepared at table; but it is much better to prepare them before the meal, and allow it to boil at least once before serving.
BREAD, ROLLS, ETC.
Bread.—The word is derived from the Anglo-Saxon bracan, to bruise, to pound, which is expressive of the ancient mode of preparing the grain. Bread was not introduced into Rome until five hundred and fifty years after its foundation. Pliny informs us that the Romans learned this, with many other improvements, during the war with Perseus, King of Macedon. The armies, on their return, brought Grecian bakers with them into Italy, who were called pistores, from their ancient practice of bruising the grain in mortars.
The Greeks ascribed the invention of bread-making to Pan; but the Chaldeans and Egyptians were acquainted with it at a still more remote period. In the paintings discovered in the tombs of Egypt the various processes used by them in bread-making are distinctly represented.
Bread from wheat was first made in China, 2000 B.C.
An extensive variety of substances is used in making bread; the roots, shoots, bark, flowers, fruits, and seeds of trees and plants have been, and are still, made into bread by semi-civilized races. In Iceland codfish is dried and beaten to a powder, and made into bread.