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Iced Coffee with Milk
Strain the coffee carefully so there are no grounds. Mix with it an equal quantity of rich sweet milk and sweeten as desired, stirring until the sugar is entirely dissolved. Let it get very cold before serving.
A two-ingredient formula for using up the morning's leftover coffee. The only real technique is dissolving the sugar and getting the drink genuinely cold.
- Sweeten while warmGranulated sugar dissolves slowly and grudgingly in cold coffee cut with cold milk. Easiest to stir it into the coffee while it is still warm, then add the milk and chill; the recipe's own instruction is to stir until the sugar is entirely dissolved.
- "Rich sweet milk""Sweet" here means fresh rather than soured or buttermilk — it is not a sugared product. "Rich" points to unskimmed milk; whole milk works, and half whole milk with half single cream comes closer to the period's unhomogenized bottle.
- Strain properlyCoffee of this era was often boiled with the grounds loose in the pot, hence the emphasis. A paper filter or a fine mesh sieve lined with a coffee filter removes the silt that turns a chilled drink gritty.
- Brew it stronger than you would drink itEqual parts milk halves the strength, and cold blunts perceived bitterness and aroma further. Coffee brewed at double strength, or cooled espresso, holds up where an ordinary cup tastes thin.
- Chill, do not iceThe instruction is to let it get very cold before serving, not to pour it over ice. Refrigerate several hours or overnight; ice cubes made from coffee keep it cold without diluting.
- KeepingOnce milk is added it is a perishable dairy drink — keep it refrigerated and use within a day or two. Brewed coffee held more than a day also picks up a stale, papery flavor.
- YieldNo quantity is given. A cup of strong coffee to a cup of milk makes two modest glasses.
Iced coffee appears in American household books through the second half of the nineteenth century, and it belongs to the same thrift logic as the rest of this collection. The instruction to strain out the grounds is a reminder that home coffee was often made by boiling or steeping grounds directly in the pot, with an eggshell or a dash of cold water used to settle them ot yet universal.