Broma
Dissolve one large tablespoonful broma in one tablespoonful warm water. Pour on it one pint boiling milk and water (equal parts). Boil ten minutes, milling or whipping as above directed. Sweeten to the taste.--Mrs. S. T. A cream-pitcher of whipped cream should always accompany chocolate or any preparation of it, such as cocoa or broma.--Mrs. S. T.
A single-serving hot cocoa built on a defunct proprietary product. The substitution is straightforward; the technique is the part worth keeping.
- What broma wasBroma was the name of a cocoa preparation sold in the later 19th century, best known as a Walter Baker & Co. product. Period descriptions suggest it was cocoa combined with starch or arrowroot, giving a smoother, less oily drink than plain ground chocolate. Use unsweetened cocoa powder measure for measure; the drink will be slightly thinner than the original.
- Make the paste firstDissolving the powder in a spoonful of warm water before adding liquid is the hinge of the recipe. Cocoa powder dropped straight into hot milk clumps and the lumps never fully disperse.
- Ten minutes is longThe long boil suited the old product, and may have been intended to cook its starch and swell the cocoa solids. With modern cocoa, two or three minutes at a bare simmer is enough; a hard ten-minute boil in half milk risks scorching on the pan bottom and gives a cooked, skinned flavor.
- Milling"Milling" means working the pot with a chocolate mill — a notched wooden stick twirled between the palms — to raise a foam. A small whisk or a stick blender does the same job. The froth was part of how chocolate was expected to be served rather than an afterthought.
- Milk and waterEqual parts milk and water appears often in period recipes for chocolate; it makes a lighter drink and stretches the milk. All whole milk gives a richer cup but needs closer watching over the heat.
- SweeteningThe original leaves sweetening to the cook. Two to three teaspoons of sugar per pint is a reasonable starting point with unsweetened cocoa.
- YieldOne pint of liquid — two ordinary cups, or more in the small cups the period used for chocolate.
Cocoa in a 19th-century American household came in several forms with confusingly similar names: cakes of ground "chocolate" for drinking, "cocoa" pressed to remove some fat, and proprietary blends like broma and racahout thickened with starch and marketed as easy to digest and suitable for invalids and children. Housekeeping in Old Virginia, usually dated to the late 1870s and compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree from contributions by Virginia housewives, prints all of them side by side with near-identical directions, which is why this entry reads as a variation rather than a standalone recipe. The instruction to send whipped cream to the table alongside reflects the older service of chocolate as something enriched at the drinker's discretion.