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Cocoa Shells
Take one-half cup of cocoa shells; two quarts of water; one pint of cream. Place the cocoa and water together in a double boiler, and boil them for two hours, when they
A cocoa-shell infusion — the husks left over from roasting cacao beans, simmered long and served with cream. The text breaks off mid-sentence, so the finish has to be inferred from period practice: strain out the shells, add the scalded cream, and serve hot.
- What cocoa shells areThey are the papery husks winnowed off roasted cacao beans, sold today as cacao shells or cacao husk tea (sometimes, loosely, cascarilla). They carry cocoa aroma and some theobromine but little fat, so the drink is thin and fragrant rather than rich — which is why the cream is wanted.
- QuantitiesHalf a cup of shells is by volume and they are very light; the weight is small, likely under an ounce. A pint is 2 cups, a quart 4 cups. How much of the two quarts is lost over two hours in a double boiler is uncertain — gentle heat evaporates slowly — so the finished quantity, with the pint of cream added, is somewhere between six and ten cups.
- The double boiler will not boilWater in the upper pan of a double boiler holds just under boiling, so "boil them for two hours" means a long steady steep rather than a rolling boil. Hard boiling tends to draw bitterness from the husks, so the gentle heat is no loss, though the recipe gives no reason for the choice.
- StrainingThe shells break into splinters over two hours. Strain through a fine sieve lined with cloth, and press the husks lightly rather than wringing them, which pushes fine grit through.
- Adding the creamScald the cream separately and add it to the hot infusion off the heat. Boiling cream into a long-simmered liquor gives it a cooked, faintly sulphurous edge.
- SeasoningNo sweetening appears in the surviving text, though it breaks off mid-sentence and sugar may have followed. A little sugar and a pinch of salt sharpen the cocoa note considerably; the infusion on its own reads as weak tea to a modern palate.
Cocoa shells were the cheapest thing in the grocer's cocoa line — a by-product of chocolate manufacture, sold cheap by the sack, and an economy drink in nineteenth-century American and British households where cocoa itself was dearer. They also went by cocoa-shell tea, and were recommended in period sources as a mild, nearly stimulant-free evening drink for invalids and children, the husks holding far less theobromine than the nib. That the method was still being printed in the early twentieth century shows how long the habit persisted after cocoa powder became cheap; the same shells now come back as a specialty tea sold by chocolate makers, which is the easiest way to find them.