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Home-Made Chocolate

(To roast cacao for the chocolate.) Procure a half pound each Caracas and Puerto Cabello raw cacao in shell, being careful to select nuts intact, that is to say, not bruised or broken. Should there be any broken ones among them lay aside for further action. Place cacao in a small coffee roaster, close cover, place over a clear fire on range (the entire barrel of roaster over fire), and gently turn at the rate of twenty turns per minute, continuing for twelve minutes without ceasing. Rapidly take roaster from its stand, briskly shake barrel, immediately replace it on stand and rapidly resume gentle turning at same rate for eight minutes longer. Remove it again, and should there be any bruised or broken cacao left add to the other, tightly slide cover on, briskly shake, replace on fire and roast again same as before, but for six minutes only. Remove cacao from roaster to a tin, cover with a dry cloth and let cool for ten minutes. Carefully shell cacao, place latter in a tin and shells in a bowl, keeping them for future use. Briskly shuffle cacao in tin pan and blow off all remnants of shells. N.B. If no coffee roaster is on hand to roast cacao then use an untinned kitchen basin and roast in oven to a good golden brown.