The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-07-29
HOW TO MAKE GOOD COFFEE.

| uOW ~ WhhE OOOU SOTrEEs
The Various Steps in the Progress
Described by an EXpert..Thc Coffee
Should Be Freshly Roasted and Not
| Too Finely GrOund..Thc Water
should BE Not Only Boiling Bu.
Also Cooked.
An exDet tells the Sun: "Of course,
the first thing is good coffee. That. as
l have already told you. must be Java.
Pedang Java 1t is known to the import
ing trade. You do not have to know
that. Get your Java from a grocer who
knows his business, and it will be all
right, and don't have any mixtures.
The first important thing in the pre-
paration of coffee is the roasting. Once
upon time, and not so very long ago.
particular persons had, to roast the
beans themselves, but it is better done
today by the great houses which do
1T for the trade. Your good grocer will
have his coffee fresh roasted every day
or two. and YOU should never buy moro
than q weeks supply at u time. II
your grocer has more than one color Of
roast get the bright, or Boston roast
| "Gring the coffee 1T home, and only
enough at time to make one drawinE
Here is where your true skill must be-
gin to show itself. For the French cuf-
fee pot, or any other of the iiltering
pots, the coffee has to be ground very
fine. and this Is the first element in
their wasteful character. You know
what delicious odUr arises from the
coffee mill when the fresh roasted
beans are bein crushed in 1t. Every
appetsing Whit which comes from the
mill is Just as much lost to your cup
of coffee, and a very material loss. too
The essence of the coffee bean is very
volatile. 1t is held in minute cells, the
sides of which in the raw bean are able
to retain 1t for years. We roast the
bean to make these cell walls friable
and porus to water. and at the same
time we make them somewhat porous
to the essence.
Still, if we do not break the bean in
to fine pieces we will not at once take
so much of the essence as we will If
we grind ii finely. What we want to
| break ii into pieces just as large as boil
ing water can thoroughly penetrate
and no larger or smaller. The proper
size, you will find, is pieces about one
twelfth of an inch square, or about as
big as cubes broken from the lead of an
ordinary lead pencil. Your wife will
think that very coarse and you will
set but little flavor from the coffee mill
during the grinding. This. you will
| readily understand, when you compare
| the small number of broken cells ey-
posed to the surface of these coarse
grains and the far greater number cut
into the fine grinding.
Everything should have been made
ready for the making of the coffee be-
fore the grinding was done but this isn't
| much. Now l will tell you the most
| important of trade secrets. Most peo-
pie understand that in order to prop
erly draw a cup of tea or to make cof-
fee, boiling water is necessary, hut
there Is something more. The water
n uet be cooked. Water that has mere
~ been brought to q boil iur some rea-
sol will not absorbe the essence freely.
For making both tea and coffee the
water must be boiled for fifteen or
twenty minutes.
ordinary plain coffee pot either of tin
or granite ware, but of course, be sure
that it is clean, and that the timing
|
no iron. is exposed IF the iron is ex-
posed it will be certain to make ink
with the tannin in the coffee, and your
coffee will be spoiled. Put your ground
coffee into the not, and then pour in
the cooked water while it is boiling hot.
Put in all the water that will be needed
at once, SO as to have the greatest
quantity at hand 20 absorbe the coffee
essence. Then let the pot stand on the
stove until the water has again como
to good hard boil. Remove ii and the
coffee is ready"
"If you want milk, have the milk
boiled and remember that milk is bet
ter than cream to bring out ne coffee
| navor.
There is one other good way to make
coffee, but it is not so good. That is
the old-fashioncd Yankee method of
putting the coffee in the pot with cold
water. and leaving the pot on the fire
until the water comes to a brisk boil.
The Yankee coffee pot has tin whistle
on it which blows when the steam
comes out and gives notice that the
coffee is ready"
Now tell us how much coffee to use
for each cup
THAT no one can tell you truly. Cof-
fee differs as much in strength as it
| does in flavor. OF one sample you
might have to use twice as much as of
another. But this l wish to impress
| upon you; there is a positive disadvan-
tage in using too much coffee. Did you
ever try to test the odor of concentrated
perfumes in the form in which they are
sold by the wholesale trade to perfu-
mers? If you open a bottle right under
you nose. you will find that instead of
getting n pleasing odor you will get a
tstink. on the other hand. if you hold
the bottle at arms length and wave it
gently to and fro. the nostrils will be
delighted with the disseminated Cs-
| sencc. So with coffee. All you need is
enough to fill the water with a full
| bodied flavor, and more would be not
only n waste, but worse. When you
| have once learned to distinguish the
true flavor from the taste of the
roasted vegetable and gugary matter
i which most people mistake for 1t. you
| will soon learn how much coffee tc
use"
AN INCORRICIIsLE CASE.
! They say you are not in society's swim.