Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1899-06-19
HOT WATER AND TEA.
Marion Harland Gives Advice on
Proper Boiling.

A woman who believes that she
has averted if not cured, constitutional
headaches by drinking a glass of hot
water every morning before breakfast,
takes the same also in lieu of after
noon tea, and sips with apparent rel
ish. She raised a laugh in a little
company gathered yesterday about the
tea table by asserting that she found
almost as much difference in the quail
ity of the hot water at various times
as her friends discerned in their cups
of Oolong or Ceylon.
I knew the water bibber to be in the
right, and supported her position. The
founder of the famous Delmonico
restaurant insisted that water should
be boiled freshly for each brew of
tea Every judge of really excellent
tea can detect, on the instant, when it
has been made from water just boiled
and when the kettle has been dragged
to the front from the hob, where it
has simmered all the afternoon,
brought again to the bubble, and
then poured upon the dried leaves Of
the Chinese herb. Even more OBJ
jectionable is the slovenly practice
more prevalent below stairs than mis-
tresses suspect of filling the kettle
from the boiler, to hurry up the bubble
and steam. A tyro in tea-testing
knows when the water has never
boiled 1t may be hot enough to
scald the fingers on which it splashes,
yet be unfit for tea-making or any
other nice culinary process. One man,
whose wife always makes her tea up
on the table, complains that much of
that served to him out Of his own
house has the fairness and even a
suspicion of the greasiness of dish
water. This peculiar phase of in
sipidity is the result of unboiled
nothing else. With the ebuli-
ltion-known to the illeterate as a
bubbling bile"-come the "bead" and
what we may characterize as bright
ness Of taste.
The water for making tea and coffee
should be put into the kettle cold
and hurried as rapidly as possible to
the boil. 1t loses freshness hot
water drinker would say strength
when heated sluggishly. Warmed over
boil, that is, a singing kettle that
dubbed an hour or so ago, and has
quietly Kissed away a certain quantity
of vapor and life, until moved anew
from beneath to repeat the motions
of the boiling point, will make a
tasteless brew if poured upon leaves
or grounds or Shells and, if drunk
by itself, is rather nauseating than
stimulating to the stomach.
Always keep one kettle, a large one.
full of hot water upon the range for
household exigencies, washing,
scrubbing, scalding out close vessels,
filling hot-water bags, should such be
needed, drawing the pain out of
bruises and sprains, soaking the feet
in case of headache, or sudden con-
gestion, bathing sore eyes, and so
many other incidental needs that the
big kettle may be regarded as family
pharmacopoeia and housewives friend.
The uses-each of which is bless
ing-of hot water are manifold. Some
are known to every householder,
others are suspected by few. A glass
of hot water taken before breakfast
cleanses the coat of the stomach, di-
lutes bile, and awakens the drowsy,
digestive powers to action Do not
make the mistake of drinking it so hot
as to give pain to the delicate mem
branes that line the alimentary or
gans.
The same caution applies to the
water used for bathing infamed eyes.
Use it as warm as can be comfor-
tably borne. When scalding hot the
application defeats the end of which it
is made
Unless the water supply of your
household is beyond suspicion, cook
not merely boil-all the water drunk
in the family. Every morning set a
large, clean pot over the fire full of
cold water; cover and bring to a
steady boil. Keep this up for forty
pour the water thus steril-
lied into bottles or glass jars, stop
the mouths with clean raw cotton
(''cotton wool'') and set in the cellar
or upon ice for use when wanted. This |
is a wise precaution to take, with the
water intended for babies or very