To make café noir, use no percolating, filtering, or steaming engine of any sort. Pound the roasted berries in a mortar to a fine powder, which keep in a tightly corked glass bottle. The coffee-pot may be a tin pannikin of the simplest shape—a truncated cone, or a cylinder rather narrower at the top than at the bottom. To make a cup of coffee, first place into the pannikin 1 teaspoonful (heaped) of the coffee powder, then fill up with water, hot or cold; stir the contents with a teaspoon, and hold the pannikin over the fire or a lighted gas burner; when the contents boil, stir it once more, and again hold it over the fire; then, stirring a third time, pour the contents into a coffee-cup, and as soon as the coffee has sufficiently cooled, by which time the powder is well settled to the bottom, drink it. For those who take sugar, put a sufficient quantity of it into the pannikin before boiling the coffee. When hot water is used, it takes about 1 minute to make 1 cup of coffee.
Foreign Dishes
Foreign Dishes.—The following notes comprise the chief special dishes of various foreign countries. They will afford many a useful hint to the English housewife who is not prejudiced against foreign cookery.
American.—Boston Brown Bread.—1 pint tepid water, 2 gills of wheat flour, 1 pint rye meal, 1 pint of Indian meal, ½ pint molasses, 1½ gill smart yeast, 1 teaspoonful salt, 1 small teaspoonful soda carbonate; mix well, pour it into a tall straight-sided mould with a tight cover. Let it rise 3-4 hours. Steam or boil it for 4-5 hours. Remove the cover and set it in a moderate oven to dry for ½ hour. Serve hot in slices.
Buckwheat Cakes.—Buckwheat depends entirely on its treatment; crushed and kneaded into heavy loaves, it forms the impossible pumpernickel; finely ground and deftly handled, it becomes the famous buckwheat cake. To make the latter well-known dish, 2-3 tablespoonfuls fine buckwheat flour are mixed overnight with a little yeast in order to—as the bakers say—set the sponge. In the morning the “sponge” is added to some buckwheat flour, moistened simply with warm water, when the whole mass “rises” immediately into the form of an excessively light batter. Enough of this batter to make an ordinary muffin (about 2 tablespoonfuls) is placed on the well-anointed “griddle”—a flat piece of iron, well-known in the northern counties of England—the cake is turned quickly with a flat “slice,” and in about 2 minutes assumes a pale brown colour, and is done. This accomplished, the quicker the cake is transferred from the griddle to the mouth the better. Eaten hot it is delicious, but once allowed to settle, becomes heavy and “stodgy” to an inedible degree. These cakes may be eaten with butter and sugar, with molasses, honey, or maple syrup, and are in any way excellent—when hot.
Cheese Biscuits.—Take 4 oz. grated cheese, 3 oz. finely grated breadcrumbs, 2 oz. butter, 1 teaspoonful flour of mustard, 1 saltspoonful cayenne, 1 of white pepper, and 2 beaten-up eggs; melt the butter and mix all the ingredients together, and let them stand an hour. Knead and work out the paste as thin as possible, and cut it into triangles or roll it up into thin sticks about 3 in. long. Bake in a quick oven for 16-18 minutes; serve hot.
Chow-Chow.—Take 2 heads of cabbage, 2 heads of cauliflower, 2 qt. dwarf onions, 2 qt. small tomatoes, 12 cucumbers, and 6 roots of celery; cut into small pieces and boil each vegetable separately until tender, then strain and take 2 gal. vinegar, ¼ lb. mustard, ¼ lb. mustard seed, 1 pot French mustard, 1 oz. cloves, and 2 oz. turmeric; put the vinegar and spices into a pan, and let them come to the boil, then mix the vegetables, and pour the liquor over.
Chowder.—A chowder is always made in a deep iron pot. Cut 6 oz. pickled pork into dice. Put it, with 2 large onions sliced, into the pot; fry till the onion begins to brown; remove the pork and onions. Slice 5 or 6 medium-sized potatoes and 3 lb. fresh cod or other firm fish. Put into the pot a layer of potatoes, then one of fish, seasoning each layer as you proceed with a sprinkling of the fried onions and pork, also a little soup herbs, pepper, and salt. Pour on cold water enough to barely cover the whole, and boil 20 minutes; then add 3 large ship biscuits soaked in milk, also ½ pint hot milk. As soon as it boils again remove it from the fire, and serve it at once. A cup of claret is sometimes added, but in that case the milk is omitted; or clams are frequently used instead of fish, in which case a layer of sliced or canned tomatoes is added.
Clam Fritters.—Put a sufficient quantity of clams into a stewpan, straining the liquor, and pouring about half of it over the clams, adding a little black pepper, but no salt. Let them stew slowly for ½ hour, then take them out, drain off all the liquor, and mince the clams as finely as possible, omitting the hardest parts. You should have enough clams to make a large pint when minced. Make a batter of 7 eggs, beaten till very thick and light, and then mixed gradually with 1 qt. milk and 1 pint sifted flour, stirred in by degrees, and made perfectly smooth and free from lumps. Then gradually mix the minced clams with the butter, and stir the whole very hard. Have ready, in a frying pan over the fire, a sufficiency of boiling lard. Put the batter in with a spoon, so as to form round thin cakes; fry them light brown. Drain well, and serve hot.
Cucumber Sauce.—(a) Peel some cucumbers, and then grate sufficient to make 4 tablespoonfuls; to this quantity add an equal quantity of the best olive oil, 1½ tablespoonfuls vinegar, salt and cayenne pepper; stir well until wanted for use. Serve with salmon, lamb, or mutton cutlets. (b) Peel some cucumbers, cut them up quite small and put them into a saucepan with a little vinegar, cayenne pepper, salt, a small onion, also cut up, and a few celery seeds. Stew gently for 2-3 hours, add a small pat of butter, and serve with cutlets.