Coffee, Essence of
INGREDIENTS.-To every 1/4 lb. of ground coffee allow 1 small teaspoonful of powdered chicory, 3 small teacupfuls or 1 pint of water.
Let the coffee be freshly ground, and, if possible, freshly roasted; put it into a percolater, or filter, with the chicory, and pour slowly over it the above proportion of boiling water. When it has all filtered through, warm the coffee sufficiently to bring it to the simmering-point, but do not allow it to boir; then filter it a second. time, put it into a clean and dry bottle, cork it well, and it will remain good for several days. Two tablespoonfuls of this essence are quite sufficient for a breakfastcupful of hot milk. This essence will be found particularly useful to those persons who have to rise extremely early; and having only the milk to make boiling, is very easily and quickly prepared. When the essence is bottled, pour another 3 tencupfuls of boiling water slowly on the grounds, which, when filtered through, will be a very weak coffee. The next time there is essence to be prepared, make this weak coffee boiling, and pour it on the ground coffee instead of water.
TIME. To be filtered once, then brought to the simmering point, and filtered again.
Note. Coffee Essence can now be obtained ready for use, thus saving time and trouble.
That prepared by Messrs. Thos. Symington, containing only sugar in addition to the soluble constituents of fresh coffee, forms an excellent substitute. Very good essence of coffee is also made by Branson and Co., and E. Clark and Co.
A Victorian coffee concentrate, meant to be kept bottled and let down with hot milk. The proportions as printed are far more concentrated than any modern filter will manage, so the ratio is the first thing to settle.
- The ratio is the problemOne pound of grounds (about 454 g) to one pint of water (about 570 ml) is barely more water than coffee by weight, and grounds absorb roughly twice their own weight — almost nothing will drip through. Work at a manageable scale and accept a wetter ratio: about 100 g of coffee to 300 ml of boiling water gives a genuinely strong essence you can actually collect.
- TeacupfulsThe text sets its own conversion: 3 small teacupfuls equal 1 pint, so with the imperial pint (about 570 ml) a teacupful here is roughly 190 ml. The later "3 tencupfuls" is a printer's error for teacupfuls.
- Never let it boilThis is the hinge. Reheating filtered coffee to the simmering point drives off aromatics and brings out bitterness; taken to a full boil it turns harsh and flat. If you reheat at all, stop well short of bubbles. The recipe gives no reason for the step; it may have been intended to help the essence keep.
- ChicoryA teaspoonful of powdered roast chicory root per pound of coffee is a flavour note, not filler at that dose: it adds body and a faint bitter-caramel edge. Sold today as roasted chicory granules; it contains no caffeine.
- Filtering twiceThe second filtering removes fines and sediment that would otherwise settle in the bottle. A paper filter or a fine cloth does this better than the metal filters of the period.
- Keeping it"Good for several days" assumed a cold larder. Bottle it, refrigerate, and use within two or three days; the flavour drops off noticeably after the first day even when the coffee is still sound.
- The second pass on the groundsPouring more water through spent grounds extracts the bitter, papery compounds left behind, and using that liquid as the brewing water next time carries them into the fresh batch. It was thrift, not technique. Discard the grounds.
- ServingTwo tablespoonfuls to a cup of hot milk — essentially a café au lait. At the scaled-down quantity above you will get roughly 150–200 ml of essence, or about five to seven cups.
Essence of coffee belongs to a period when coffee was widely sold already ground and frequently cut with chicory, and when the person making breakfast was often up before dawn: the whole point, as the book has it, is that only the milk needs boiling. Chicory root, roasted and ground, had been established in British and French coffee since the early nineteenth century, partly as a wartime and price-driven extender and partly because drinkers had come to like the thicker, slightly bitter cup it gave — the adulteration question was argued over in Parliament and the medical press for decades. The bottled essences the note recommends were the commercial answer to the same need, and Symington's, Branson's and Clark's were among several British firms selling coffee essences in the later Victorian decades; the surviving descendant of that trade is the chicory-heavy coffee essence still sold in Britain today. The note itself is a good marker of how these editions grew: it was added by later hands after Isabella Beeton's death, quietly recommending readers buy rather than make.