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Boiled Coffee
1 cup coffee 1 cup cold water 1 egg 6 cups boiling water Scald granite-ware coffee-pot. Wash egg, break, and beat slightly. Dilute with one-half the cold water, add crushed shell, and mix with coffee. Turn into coffee-pot, pour on boiling water, and stir thoroughly. Place on front of range, and boil three minutes. If not boiled, coffee is cloudy; if boiled too long, too much tannic acid is developed. The spout of pot should be covered or stuffed with soft paper to prevent escape of fragrant aroma. Stir and pour some in a cup to be sure that spout is free from grounds. Return to coffee-pot and repeat. Add remaining cold water, which perfects clearing. Cold water being heavier than hot water sinks to the bottom, carrying grounds with it. Place on back of range for ten minutes, where coffee will not boil. Serve at once. If any is left over, drain from grounds, and reserve for making of jelly or other dessert.
Egg-shells may be saved and used for clearing coffee. Three egg-shells are sufficient to effect clearing where one cup of ground coffee is used. The shell performs no office in clearing except for the albumen which clings to it. One-fourth cup cold water, salt fish-skin, washed, dried, and cut in inch pieces, is used for same purpose.
Coffee made with an egg has a rich flavor which egg alone can give. Where strict economy is necessary, if great care is taken, egg may be omitted. Coffee so made should be served from range, as much motion causes it to become roiled.
Tin is an undesirable material for a coffee-pot, as tannic acid acts on such metal and is apt to form a poisonous compound.
When coffee and scalded milk are served in equal proportions, it is called Caf'e au lait. Coffee served with whipped cream is called Vienna Coffee. To Make a Small Pot of Coffee. Mix one cup ground coffee with one egg, slightly beaten, and crushed shell. To one-third of this amount add one-third cup cold water. Turn into a scalded coffee-pot, add one pint boiling water, and boil three minutes. Let stand on back of range ten minutes; serve. Keep remaining coffee and egg closely covered, in a cool place, to use two successive mornings.
To Make Coffee for One. Allow two tablespoons ground coffee to one cup cold water. Add coffee to cold water, cover closely, and let stand over night. In the morning bring to a boiling-point. If carefully poured, a clear cup of coffee may be served.
A late-nineteenth-century boiled coffee, clarified with egg. It works, but almost every vessel and heat cue in it belongs to a coal range and needs translating.
- The hinge: three minutes, no moreThe whole method rests on a short, hard boil followed by a rest off the boil. Under-boiled coffee stays cloudy because the egg albumen never coagulates and traps the fines; boiled long, it turns harsh and bitter.
- Front and back of the range"Front of the range" means full heat, "back of the range" means a warm spot where the coffee will not boil, as the text puts it. On a modern hob, boil on medium-high, then move to the lowest burner setting or off the heat entirely with a lid on.
- Granite-ware and the tin warningGranite-ware is enamelled steel, and the warning against tin is sound in principle: coffee is acidic and attacks bare reactive metal. Use enamel, stainless steel or glass. The "poisonous compound" is overstated, but off-flavours from a scratched tinned pot are real.
- ProportionsOne cup of ground coffee to six cups of boiling water plus one cup cold, about seven cups of water in all. Use a coarse grind, as for a French press; fine espresso grind will pass straight through and muddy the pot.
- The eggThe albumen coagulates in the heat and drags suspended grounds and fines with it. Shells alone work because of the albumen clinging inside them, as the text says. Three shells per cup of grounds is the stated equivalent.
- Salt fish skinThe recipe offers washed, dried salt fish-skin as an alternative clarifier, its protein serving much the same purpose. It is not worth hunting down; the egg or shells do the job.
- Keeping the egg-and-coffee mixtureThe small-pot method has you hold a raw egg beaten into ground coffee for two more mornings in "a cool place." That meant a cold pantry. Refrigerate it in a covered jar and use it within a day, or simply beat a fresh egg each time.
- Cold water for settlingAdding cold water at the end does help the grounds drop, and cold water is indeed denser than hot, as the text says. The rest off the heat matters at least as much as the pour.
- LeftoversCoffee drained from the grounds and saved for jelly or dessert was standard thrift; coffee jelly, set with gelatine and served with cream, appears throughout books of this period.