As substitutes for coffee, some use dry brown bread crusts, and roast
them; others soak rye grain in rum, and roast it; others roast peas in
the same way as coffee. None of these are very good; and peas so used
are considered unhealthy. Where there is a large family of apprentices
and workmen, and coffee is very dear, it may be worth while to use the
substitutes, or to mix them half and half with coffee; but, after all,
the best economy is to go without.
French coffee is so celebrated, that it may be worth while to tell how
it is made; though no prudent housekeeper will make it, unless she has
boarders, who are willing to pay for expensive cooking.
The coffee should be roasted more than is common with us; it should
not hang drying over the fire, but should be roasted quick; it should
be ground soon after roasting, and used as soon as it is ground. Those
who pride themselves on first-rate coffee, burn it and grind it
every morning. The powder should be placed in the coffee-pot in the
proportions of an ounce to less than a pint of water. The water should
be poured upon the coffee boiling hot. The coffee should be kept at
the boiling point; but should not boil. Coffee made in this way must
be made in a biggin. It would not be clear in a common coffee-pot.
A bit of fish-skin as big as a ninepence, thrown into coffee while
it is boiling, tends to make it clear. If you use it just as it comes
from the salt-fish, it will be apt to give an unpleasant taste to the
coffee: it should be washed clean as a bit of cloth, and hung up till
perfectly dry. The white of eggs, and even egg shells are good to
settle coffee. Rind of salt pork is excellent.
Some people think coffee is richer and clearer for having a bit of
sweet butter, or a whole egg, dropped in and stirred, just before it
is done roasting, and ground up, shell and all, with the coffee. But
these things are not economical, except on a farm, where butter and
eggs are plenty. A half a gill of cold water, poured in after you take
your coffee-pot off the fire, will _usually_ settle the coffee.
If you have not cream for coffee, it is a very great improvement to
boil your milk, and use it while hot.