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Breakfast Coffee
4 rounded tablespoons finely-ground coffee White of egg 4 cups cold water The usual rule is 2 level or 1 rounded tablespoon of coffee for each cup served. Mix egg white and dry coffee, add the cold water and bring to boiling point. Boil three minutes. Remove from fire, let stand five minutes and strain from grounds.
This is boiled coffee, the standard American method before drip and percolator equipment became common. It works, but the details matter more than the sparse wording suggests.
- Grind"Finely-ground" in this period does not mean an espresso-fine powder; a medium drip grind is probably the closer modern match, and a very fine grind risks passing through the strainer.
- The egg whiteThis is the hinge of the recipe. Egg white coagulates as the pot heats and traps the fine grounds and colloidal solids, clarifying the brew and giving it the bright, almost transparent look prized at the time. Use about a tablespoon of white from one egg for this quantity, mixed into the dry coffee to a paste before the water goes in. Some cooks crushed the shell in as well.
- Cold water startBeginning cold means the grounds extract over the whole heating period, which is presumably why only three minutes of actual boiling is called for.
- Boiling and bitternessThree minutes at a full boil is the outer limit. Boiled coffee turns harsh quickly, and much of the method's bad reputation comes from pots left simmering on the back of the stove. Pull it off the heat on time.
- The five-minute restThis is the settling stage, not steeping. It lets the egg-bound grounds sink so the strain is clean. A dash of cold water poured in at this point was the traditional trick to speed settling.
- StrainingA fine mesh sieve lined with cheesecloth or a paper filter will do for the straining the recipe calls for. Pour steadily and do not press the sediment.
- YieldFour cups of water will give somewhat less brewed coffee once the grounds absorb their share and some boils off. By the recipe's own rule — one rounded tablespoon per cup served — four rounded tablespoons is pitched at four cups.
Boiled coffee with egg was the American household standard through the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth. The egg-white clarification works on the same principle as the older confectioner's and stock-maker's trick of using beaten white to raise a scum that carries off suspended particles — the principle behind clarifying consommé and jelly.