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Frozen Coffee (Three quarts of water pounds)
Three quarts of water, 1½ pounds sugar, ¾ pound fresh roasted coffee, I white of egg. Grind the coffee quite fine and put it into a gallon jar, first Grind the coffee quite fine and put it into a gallon jar, first scalding the jar with boiling water. Put 3 quarts fresh water into a kettle, on a quick fire; at the first boil pour it on the coffee, stir well, cover and set in a warm place to draw. Stir occasionally for five minutes, let stand till well settled, pour off the clear coffee through fine muslin, add water to make 3 quarts , dissolve sugar in it and cool. Put in the freezer, add the egg, and freeze to a soft mush , like wet snow. It is served in tall goblets. This is a very popular ice in very popular ice in France, and is called "Cafe frappe a la Glace"; also Frozen tea and many wines and cordials are prepared likewise.
The coffee-making half of this is sound, but the finish is not: a raw egg white goes into the freezer can and is never heated at any point.
- The raw egg whiteThe white is added to the cold sweetened coffee in the freezer to keep the ice smooth, and it is never heated at any point in the method. Uncooked shell egg carries a Salmonella risk that freezing does not reduce; freezing preserves the organism rather than killing it. A current frozen-coffee or granita recipe should be used instead.
- Why it was there at allEgg white was a common addition for body and a fine crystal in ices. Its job is texture, not flavour, which is why the omission costs the drinker very little.
- Long steeping in a jarThree quarters of a pound of fine-ground coffee steeped in near-boiling water and then left in a warm place to draw is a very heavy, very bitter extraction by modern taste. The muslin straining is doing filtration work that paper or a fine cloth would do faster and cleaner.
- Quantities and yieldQuantities -- Three quarts of coffee with a pound and a half of sugar is roughly a cup of sugar per quart.
- "Freeze to a soft mush, like wet snow"This is the granita consistency, not a scoopable ice cream, and it is the correct description of the intended result. It would have been reached in an ice-and-salt freezer, the "freezer" of the original text.
Cafrfrappa la glace means simply coffee struck, or chilled, with ice, from frapper, to strike, and frapp dotless used of chilling in ice.