The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-08-03
THE HOUSEHOLD
TIPS FOR MAKING COFFEE.
The Process as Described by AN Ex-
pert.

An air of great disappointment came
over the face of the coffee expert after
he had pushed away the remnants
of his dinner the other night and taken
the first spoonful of his first cup of
coffee. No one could help noticing 1t,
such a change it was from the eager
happy look with which the coffee had
been welcomed. The expert not only
knows coffee as a matter of business.
but he also loves it. He even loves to
delve deep down into bins or bags
of the berries and it is not unusual to
find that by evening his cuffs and even
his white lawn tie, which are immac-
ulate every morning, are brown with
the dust of the coffee.
HORRIBLE he cried, tasting the cof-
fee again. Waiter, tell Henry to come
here"
Henry is the head waiter When he
arrived the expert looked at him with
sorrow and his tones were those of
disappointed man when he spoke.
Henry" said he, they have made
the coffee tonight with water that was
rot boiling.
Henry offered at once to get a bet
ter cup of coffee. While the expert was
waiting for it one of his companions
asked how coffee should be made to
have it just right.
Can you make good coffee with a
French straining pot?''
A look of positive pain came over the
face of the expert.
You cam" he answered ''but it
breaks my heart, when 1 think of the
millions of dollars worth of good cof-
fee which are wasted every year by
using that kind of pot. Oh, yes you
can make as good coffee in a French
pot as you can in any kind, but it takes
just twice as much coffee to do it."
Then tell us how to make good cof-
fee without violating your sentiments
of respect for the coffee beam
L will, but the story must begin fur
Their back than the commencement Of
the operation in the kitchen. Of course.
the first thing is to get good coffee
That, as have already told you, must
rs be Java. Pedang Java 1T is known to
the importing 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 preparation 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 IL for the. trade. Your good grocer
will have his coffee fresh roasted every
day or two, and you should never buy
more than weeks supply at time.
Ii your grocer has more than one color
of roast, get the bright, or Boston,
roast.
Grind the coffee at home, and only
enough at time to make one drawing.
Here IS where your true skill must be-
gin to show itself. For the French cof-
Zee pot, or any other of the filtering
pots, the coffee has to be ground very
Hne and this is the first element in
their WaSteful character. You know
what delicious odor arises from the
coffee mill when the fresh-roasted
Deans are being crushed in it. Every
appetizfng Whit which comes from
that mill is just so 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 it for years We roast
the bean to make these cell walls fri
able and porous to water, and at the
same time we make them somewhat
porous to the essence.
Still, if we do not break the bean
into fine pieces we will not at once
take so much Of the essence as we will
1t we grind it finely. What we want
is to break it into pieces just as large
as boiling water can thoroughly pen
citrate 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 get but little flavor from
the coffee mill during the grinding.
This you will readily understand
when you compare the small number
of broken cells exposed on the surfaces
of these coarse grains and the far
greater number cut into by fine grind
Ing. n
Everything should have been made
ready for the making of the coffee
before the grinding was done, but this
dsn't much. Now l will tell you the
most important of trade secrets. Most
people understand that in order to
properly draw a cup of tea or to make
coffee boiling water is necessary, but
there is something more. The water
must be cooked. Water that has
merely been brought to boil for some
reason will not absorb the essence
freely. For making both tea and cot
fee the water must be boiled for fifteen
or twenty minutes.
Nov for the pot Let it be just an
ordinary plain coffee pot, either of tin
or granite ware, but, of course, be sure
that it is clean, and that the Timing
or granite enamel Is perfect, so that no
iron is exposed. If the iron is exposed
1t will be certain to make ink with
the tannin in the coffee, and your
coffee will be spoiled. Put your
ground coffee into the pot, 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 to absorb
the coffee essence. Then let the pot
stand on the stove until the water has
again come to a good hard boil. Re-
move 1t 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 the coffee
flavor.
There is one other good way to
make coffee, but it is not so good
That is the old-fashioned 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 a 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
Coffee differs as much in strength as
1t does in flavor. OF one sample you
might have to use twice as much as
of another. But this I wish to impress
upon you: There is a positive disad-
vantage 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 perfumers? If you open a
bottle right under your nose you will
find that instead of getting pleasing
odor you will get stink. On the other