4t 32 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[November, 
the “ muddier ” is the beverage, unless some art be 
used to “ settle ” the coffee. Break an egg at one 
end so as to pour out the white, retaining the yolk 
in the shell. Mix the white well with the ground 
coffee, and if it is not sufficient to wet it ail, add 
just enough water to dampen the whole, stirring it 
thoroughly together. Put this into the coffee-pot, 
and pour boiling water over it, (one pint to each 
two tablespoonfuls of coffee, Miss Beecher says; 
Marion Harland says one quart of water to half a pint 
of ground coffee, afterwards adding a cup of cold 
water); and the egg is immediately cooked, so as to 
retain all of the fine coffee grounds in its meshes. 
If this is properly done, no addition of cold water 
or anything else after boiling, is necessary to pro¬ 
duce clear sparkling coffee. I have often admired 
the work of the egg in clearing coffee, as I have re- 
the dexter” scroll saw. —{See next page.) 
moved the spongy ball of egg and coffee when clean¬ 
ing the coffee-pot. It is evident that many house¬ 
keepers do not see the philosophy involved in this 
use of egg, or they would never for a moment sup¬ 
pose that the egg would clear the coffee satisfac¬ 
torily if put into it at any time after the coffee and 
boiling water are put together. You want to bind 
the coffee grounds together with egg, not to add* 
boiled egg to the beverage. Put in the yolk of egg 
if you like, but it is of no more use than so much 
water. I prefer to stir it well into the thickening 
for my cream or milk gravy, where it adds richness 
and nourishment, and beauty. 
We can not always get an egg to settle coffee 
with, and few of us possess a French filter, or even 
an “Old Dominion” coffee-pot. This thing you 
can do—and I have done it many a time—tie the 
coffee grounds loosely in a thin bag. If the ground 
coffee is tied up in a tight bag, the water is slow in 
penetrating and extracting the properties of the 
coffee. When I use a thin, loose bag for the coffee, 
I stop up the nose of the coffee-pot, to retain the 
aroma as much as possible. If the coffee is ground 
coarsely it will settle itself, if allowed to stand 
without boiling a few minutes before serving, aud 
then turned out without shaking. The addition of 
a half tea-cup of cold water when it is removed 
from boiling, will settle the grounds, but nothing 
is quite so good and sure as white of egg, if one 
can not use a good patent coffee-pot. 
Professor Blot, in his cook-book, directed the use 
of water which had not been previously boiled, as soon 
as it reached the boiling point. For breakfast cof¬ 
fee he advised four tablespoo.ifuls for a quart of 
water, for strong coffee eight spoonfuls to a quart, 
and for “ black coffee ” one pound to a quart. It 
is this “ black coffee ” which is used, I suppose, in 
making the celebrated 
Csifc-au-lait. 
This is black coffee added to boiled milk—a table¬ 
spoonful to a cup of boiled milk, making a strong 
cup of unusually delicious coffee, famous all over 
the world as French coffee. The milk must be new 
and nice, and slowly simmered to a thick creamy 
richness. In France it is sweetened with beet sugar. 
Mrs. Stowe says that this coffee is so black and 
strong as to be “ almost the very essential oil of 
coffee.” There is significance in the name of this 
drink, suggesting that the coffee should be added 
to the milk, not the milk poured into the coffee. 
I wonder if any one ever tried both methods with¬ 
out learning the great superiority of the former. 
Browning the Coffee. 
To make good coffee, it is essential to have the 
coffee beans evenly and sufficiently browned or 
roasted, without burning. They are spoiled if roast¬ 
ed until black, but a yellowish-brown is not right. A 
rich, dark, chestnut-brown is the right color. There 
are patent contrivances for roasting coffee, but 
I have not proved their mexits. The beans should 
first be looked over, then put into a spider or drip¬ 
ping pan, and placed in a moderately hot oven, or 
upon the top of the stove. They brown evenly 
with less stirring if placed in the oven, than when 
over the stove, but this advantage is offset by the 
danger of forgetting the coffee entirely when out 
of sight in the oven. It must be stix - red often. 
Coffee and Health. 
I seem to see the Editor shaking his head as he 
comes to this, but 1 will give you a few of my own 
thoughts on this subject, if I may be allowed. He 
shall have his coffee to the end of his days if he 
wishes it; and I, when he breakfasts here, will pi'e- 
pare for him most cheerfully, the best cup of coffee 
I can make from such materials as I can obtain. 
But I shall be careful how I aid any young person 
to acquire the habit of coffee drinking. It certainly 
is perfectly safe, so far as health is concerned, to 
live without tea or coffee, either, or both. For 
many persons it is not safe to use either. Both tea 
and coffee possess medicinal properties. I see that 
Dr. Smith,in “Foods,” speaks of them as “in some 
respects antidotes to each other ,” though he does not 
class either among “poisons.” He relates, how¬ 
ever, that drinking an infusion made from two 
ounces of coffee, caused him to fall to the floor and 
remain unconscious for several minutes. But I did 
not wish to treat the matter scientifically. I fre¬ 
quently hear persons who have no knowledge of 
the properties of coffee, assign as a reason for giv¬ 
ing up coffee, that they found it injurious to them. 
Only the other day a lady was telling me her new 
way of making coffee, from a mixture of scorched 
wheat-bran and molasses, and half the usual quan¬ 
tity of coffee. She told me why she made this in¬ 
stead of the strong coffee formerly used. First, the 
hired man complained of dizziness, and said he 
must give up coffee. He had learned by previous 
experience, that the dizziness came from the use 
of coffee. Soon after, the lady’s husband com¬ 
plained of a frequent steady pressure upon the 
brain, which made it almost impossible for him to 
read at times. To the suggestion that it might be 
his coffee, he replied that “ it was impossible, as he 
had always used coffee.”—“But you will not get 
any more,” his wife answered, “ until I have found 
out whether coffee causes the trouble.”—When the 
coffee was withdrawn from the daily bill of fare, 
the trouble in the head ceased. When the needs 
of a large family seemed to require that coffee 
be supplied, she found that coffee made of wheat- 
bran mixed thick in molasses and scorched, with a 
little real coffee added for flavoring, made a driuk 
quite as acceptable to the family as the old coffee 
of full strength. But none of her children drink 
even this, and we were agreed in believing that they 
will never regret not having accustomed themselves 
to coffee in their early years. I feel soriy for the 
children who become attached to tea and coffee be¬ 
fore they reach years of discretion. I have known 
girls and boys in their teens, who could not relish 
a breakfast, however good, unless they had coffee, 
I see how the coffee drinkers (tea drinkers too, 
but now I happen to be writing about coffee) dote 
upon their bevei-age, and sometimes seem to pity 
me because I eat my food without feeling the need 
of any fluid to wash it down. But I secretly pity 
every one of them. I can make a good, satisfac¬ 
tory meal wherever I happen to be, and at any time 
of day, from bread and milk, or crackers and apples. 
[Faith Rochester writes as if she feared that we 
would not let her speak her mind on the coffee 
question. However we may disagi'ee with her, we 
always respect her views, for though a “ reformer,” 
she is not revolutionary, and all her crochets, if w e 
may call them so, have for their end and object the 
welfare and happiness of those for whom she writes. 
She touches the scientific aspects of the coffee ques¬ 
tion very gently, and she is prudent. If she wishes, 
we can show her, upon the very highest authorities, 
that coffee is of great value; if not exactly as a 
food, in preventing the bodily waste, and that there 
are very few nationalities that do not habitually 
and generally use coffee, tea, or some other plant 
containing a principle that is veiy nearly the same, 
chemically, as the principle of coffee, Caffein. The 
great trouble with all such i - efoi - mers is, that they 
look upon people as all alike. We know cases in 
which coffee is injurious, and our advice is to omit 
it. So to many persons a meat diet is injurious— 
then omit that. People must be treated as indi¬ 
viduals , and the peculiarities of each considered; 
those to whom cheese, vinegar, honey, and a host 
of other things, are not only unpleasant, but abso¬ 
lutely poisonous, should have their peculiarities re¬ 
spected. We know that many can not safely take 
coffee, but that is no reason why the large majority 
who can take it, not only with safety, but with 
positive benefit, should be deprived of it. If we 
have coffee, let it be coffee, if coffee is not good for 
us, let us go without, and not do violence to one of 
the blessings of a good Providence, by mixing 
“ bran and molasses,” or any other substitute what¬ 
ever, and dignifying the horrid compound by the 
name of “ coffee.” Ed.] 
Kitchen Dresses. 
Neat, plain calico wrappers are quite popular for 
kitchen use. They are easily made with a sewing 
machine, and can be ironed with less trouble than 
other dresses. They are becoming to most women, 
and can be worn as loose and comfortable as you 
please. But they have disadvantages which make 
themselves apparent to working women, especially 
to those who wash and iron their own clothes. 
They annoy me by bursting off the skirt buttons, or 
breaking out the button holes, as I take some of 
the divers shapes required in waiting upon the vari- 
a window transparency. —{See next page.) 
ous needs of childi'en. A large apron saves a good 1 
part of the dress from soiling, but the sleeves are 
soon “ mussed ” and soiled, and the bottom is 
“ drabbled ” with dew and dust, and then the whole 
expanse of calico must go into the tub and pass 
under the flat-iron. So on bread day6, and cleaning 
days, and washing days, at least, I like better some 
kind of a dark worsted skirt, with a big apron and 
sack of calico. There are many pretty sack pat¬ 
terns, and there are pretty ways of trimming, with¬ 
out much labor or ostentation. Ruffles are always 
objectionable on goods that must be ironed often, 
