Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-03-30
CONDENSED RATIONS.'
COFFEE FOR A MONTH CARRIED IN
A FOUR-OUNCE PACKAGE.

Concentrated Extracts of Various Edibles
Will Come In Handy In Time of War.
Everything In the Eating Line Carefully
Boiled Down.
When Uncle Sam next goes to war, the
soldiers who fight under the starry flag
will be supplied with coffee in a shape
highly condensed that one 4-ounce pack
age will serve months rations for
each man The concentrated preparation
will be given out perhaps rs dry powder,
but more probably in the form of small
iozenges, resembling cough drops in size
and shape These lozenges will he inclosed
in tin boxes OF 100, each of them weigh
ing gram aud representing one cup of
coffee. For preparing the beverage no
coffeepot is required, it being necessary
merely to put "a coffee tablet into the cup
and pour boiling water upon it, when the
coffee is instantly made.
Sugar aud milk can be added to suit the
TASTE In France such coffee loZenges of
comparatively large size have been recently
introduced, being made bulky by the addi-
ton OF sugar for swcetening. but every body
does not care for sugar, and therefore those
which have lately begun 10 he manufac-
tured in this country have been made plain
The processes by which coffee is thus con
centrated are very interesting, To begin
with the beans are roasted in AN enormous
oven and ground in a huge mill Then they
are put into great iron vessel, which i
nothing more nor less than II gigantic cot
feepot. holding 2io pounds at Il time. Hun
dreds of gallons of filtered water are pumped
into the coffeepot, which acts on the drip
principle, and the infusion is drawn off to
an evaporatin9 tank. \ steam pump keeps
the air exhausted from this tank 50 that
the coffee is in vacuo. being heated mean
while To a high temperature by steam pipes.
The water it contains rapidly passes off,
and the coffee is of about the consistency of
molasses when it is taken out 1t is poured
into trays of enameled ware. and these trays
are placed on shelves in ;inot her evaporation.
When the trays are removed a short time
later. the coffee is dry solid, which is
scraped off the trays, ground TO powder and
nodded into loZenges.
There is reason why the government
should not prepare coffee in this way on 4
large scale in the event of at Il very
great saving. By the process described one
pound of beans can he made to produce
more than I0Ocups. BY inquiry it has been
ascertained that hotels and restaurants
only get from Is to 80 cups from the same
quantity, the minimum being reported by
the most expensive establishments and the
maximum by the cheapest eating houses.
The reason for this is that the usual plan is
to make the infusion and throw away the
grounds, which still contain two-thirds
more of the original strength of the coffee.
or course for commercial purposes the
lozenges can be made of Rio. Mocha or any
other variety of the bean, to suit the taste.
From the military point of view, the adj
vantage of dispensing with bulky utensils
for preparing coffee would be import ant
Experiments have recently been made with
success in the treatment of tea by similar
methods, and before long II dry soluble eS-
sence produced from the leaves will be OF
fered in the market, a tiny dram bottle
holding 20 tablets, each representing one
cup.
Eggs are now sold on the market in n
shape resembling sawdust The chief CEN
ter for the manufacture of this product is
St. Louis. where great quantities of eggs
are bought up in summer. when the price
OF them goes down to almost nothing. They
are broken into pans, the whites and yolks
separate, and evaporated to perfect drynes..
Finally they are scraped from the pans and
granulated by grinding. when they are
ready for shipment in bulk. Bakers. con-
PETITIONERS and hotels use eggs i'll this form,
which is important saving at seasons
when they are dear in he shell 1t il with
out doubt fact that most of the eggs sold
in cities during the winter have been kept
over from the previous summer toy picking
them in brine or lime water, so that people
should be thankful for a desiccated substi
tute.
A manufactured product of a similar de-
scription, called egg albumen" is import
ed from abroad. 1t looks very much like a
fine quality of glue, broken into small bits,
golden yellow, transparent and decidedly
pretty The eggs OF wild fowls of various
species are largely employed i'll making it
the whites. that is to say, the yolks. being
utilized in Europe for tanning leather. This
egg albumen'' is used by bakers and for
glazing prints 1t costs % cents a pound
retail.
Condensed jellies are becoming an i'm
portant commercial article. They are
made in the shape of little bricks, each
weighing three ounces and with an inside
wrapper of oiled paper. According to the
directions, the brick is to be put into pint
Of boiling water and stirred until it is dis
solved The mixture is then poured into
. mold or other vessel and put in n cool
place. In a few hours the jelly is set and
ready for use, u pint and half of it. 1t
never fails to '.jell," which point is the
cause OF SO much anxiety to amateur jelly
makers.
The bricks are favored with various
some are of pure calves foot jelly, to which
wine may be added for wine jelly, prefer
ably Sicily madeira. Fifteen cents a brick
is the retail price. Concentrated ice cream
is put up in tins of eight ounces each. The
contents OF u can are to be put in three
pints of boiling milk, stirred well, permit
ted to cool and then frozen. producing two
quarts Of ice cream Condensed desserts
are prepared and sold in cans similarly,
such as blanc mange.-San Francisco Elk
Aminer
May Come In Handy.
A good lady Of Slaithwaite, who on a