22 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
oily appearance, but never a deep dark brown 
color. It should then be taken from the fire and 
kept closely covered until cold, and further until 
used. While unroasted coffee improves by age, 
the roasted berries will very generally lose 'heir 
aroma if not covered very closely. The ground 
stuff kept on sale in barrels or boxes, or in pa¬ 
pers, is not worthy the name of coffee. 
In roasting coffee, if a closed roaster be not at 
hand, we know of no better method than to put 
it into a long-handled iron “spider” or old 
fashioned frying-pan, and turn a tin basin or shal¬ 
low milk pan closely over it, and then hold it over 
the fire constantly shaking it. After completing 
the scorching, keep the tin cover over until 
perfectly cold, and then transfer it to a vessel with 
a closely fitting cover. If properly covered it may 
be kept for several days or even weeks without 
much deterioration. 
Coffee should not be ground until just before 
using If ground over night it should be covered ; 
or what is quite as well, put it into the boiler and 
cover it with cold water. The water not only 
retains the valuable oil and other aromatic ele¬ 
ments, but also prepares it by soaking for imme¬ 
diate boiling in the morning. This is a sugges¬ 
tion we have not seen elsewhere, but we have 
practiced and can commend it. Finely ground 
coffee yields a much larger portion of soluble mat¬ 
ter than that coarsely ground. It is always bet¬ 
ter to put coffee into cold water and then heat it, 
than to pour boiling water upon it. Double the 
amount of nutriment will be extracted in this way. 
With an ordinary coffee pot or boiler, coffee should 
be steeped slowly, and never boil more than three 
or four minutes at most. Every moment it is 
boiling a large amount of the flavor is lost by evap¬ 
oration. This brings us to the subject of 
COFFEE-BOILERS OR COFFEE-POTS. 
In discussing the best mode of boiling meats 
a year or two since, we recommended to set a 
tin pan closely over the kettle, and keep it filled 
with cool water, the object being to condense the 
steam and meat flavor upon the underside, where 
it would fallback into the kettle, instead of being 
dissipated in the air. We recommend a similar 
process for cooking coffee. Take a tin basin or 
cup that will just fit in the top of the coffee-pot, 
and fill it with cold water. The steam rising against 
the bottom of the basin will be condensed and fall 
back, so long as the water in the basin is not hot. 
If it gets hot, pour it out quickly, and fill up with 
cold water again. Try this method and you will 
surely find the flavor of the coffee improved veiy 
greatly. Furthermore, with this arrangement you 
can boil your coffee longer without diminishing 
its good flavor, and thus get out more of its solu¬ 
ble, nutritious as well as aromatic materials. In 
this manner a much smaller amount of coffee will 
beiequiredto produce an equally good cup of 
liquid, than when it is exposed to evaporation. 
Several valuable improvements have been re¬ 
cently made in the construction of coffee-boilers 
or coffee-pots, which operate on precisely the 
plan we have indicated, and they are what the 
manufacturers claim for them, coffee saving im¬ 
plements. A description of one or two of them 
will explain their principles and afford instruction. 
We will first name the one widely advertised as 
the “Old Dominion Coffee Pot.”—We do not 
Know why called by this name unless from fancy. 
We have used one for some months, and have 
made the annexed engraving, Fig. 1, which better 
shows its construction than the cut used hitherto 
by the manufacturers. The main body is like the 
old coffee-pot, with a cap on the nozzle to pre¬ 
vent the small evaporation from that aperture. 
Within is a deeo hasiu let down from the top, with 
a perforated bottom c, into which the coarsely 
ground coffee is placed. We do not consider 
this part specially Important, since the coffee must 
be ground coarse to keep it from sifting through. 
The old mode of grinding very fine and clari¬ 
fying with an egg, or fish skin, or isinglass, will 
secure a more thorough dissolving out of the 
soluble material, as stated above. However, when 
the coffee is longer steeped, as it can be in one of 
these boilers, the extraction will be sufficiently 
complete even when the berries are but coarsely 
ground. The convenience of the vessel c is in 
its favor. To the top of the main boiler is fitted 
a tin cup with a close cover upon it. The bottom 
of this cup is concave or bent inward like an in¬ 
verted funnel. From the center of the concave 
bottom an open pipe, p, extends into the cup, 
and is bent downward, terminating near the bot¬ 
tom as shown in the engraving. Another tube, 
s, starts from the lowest part of the cup (at which 
point the tube is partly open) and after rising up 
say two-thirds of the length of the cap it bends 
down and passing through the bottom extends 
down a little way into the body of the main boil¬ 
er. 
The operation is as follows : The water to be 
used is divided—part being put into the cup, w. 
and part into the main boiler to surround and 
saturate the coffee in the strainer. When boiled, 
the rising vapor will for a time be condensed 
upon the under concave side of the cup, (by the 
cold water within it) and fall back into the boil¬ 
er. After the cup is too warm to condense all the 
vapor, part will rise at a, in the tube, p, and 
pass out of its lower end into the water which 
surrounds it. If the boiling be long continued, as 
it may be, the water, w, will become quite aro¬ 
matic, both to taste and smell, showing that it 
has caught and retained a large amount of deli¬ 
cious flavor that would otherwise have been lost 
in the air. When taken to the table, by inclining 
the apparatus a little to one side the water will 
rise over the top of the syphon tube, s, which 
will then draw it all over and empty it down upon 
the coffee below. In this manner, you can boil 
the coffee as long as may be necessary to extract 
most of its soluble ingredients,or as long as a care¬ 
less or ignorant cook may chance to keep it on 
the fire, without injuring its quality or flavor. 
THE PEOPLE’S COFFEE POT, 
shown in fig. 2, is somewhat similar to the above, 
and designed to secure a similar end. We have 
tested one for several weeks, and find it a decided 
improvement upon the old form. Il is without 
the strainer, though a simple covered perforated 
canister to hold the cofTee may be dropped into 
the boiler, if desired. The general form of the 
main boiler, and covering cup is shown in the 
engraving. The bottom of the cup, C, is precisely 
like a funnel with a small tube, turned upward. 
The coflee is put below with water, and the 
cup above nearly filled with cold water, W. When 
boiling or evaporation commences, the vapors are 
condensed upon the cool bottom, C, and fall back. 
Any excess of vapor is carried up through the 
opened pipe, p, and a considerable portion of it 
condenses into the water, W. The manufacturer’s 
directions intimate that the essential vapors will 
be condensed upon the bottom, C, and that the 
water, W, may be thrown away. But in several 
recent experiments, when the coffee has boiled 
from 15 to 30 minutes, we have found a consid 
erable amount of flavor in the water in the cup. 
We therefore recommend to divide the water to 
to be used, putting only a part with the coffee, 
and a part in the upper cup ; and when it is car¬ 
ried to the table, pour the water, W, back into the 
Fig. 2. -people’s COFFEE-POT. 
main boiler. W'ith this precaution, we have found 
that in the “ People’s, ” as well as in the “ Old 
Dominion ” coffee-pot, the beverage is equal in 
flavor when it has been purposely or necessarily 
left upon the stove an hour, to that made in five 
minutes in the old-fashioned coffee-pot. We 
consider both of these arrangements as decided 
improvements and worthy the attention of all 
coffee-lovers. 
ALWAYS BOIL MILK FOR COFFEE. 
Those who use uncooked or raw milk in cof¬ 
fee have no conception of the decided improve¬ 
ment there is in previously boiling the milk. 
To our taste there is as much difference be¬ 
tween unboiled milk for coffee, and that boiled 
—if not scorched—as there is between a raw 
and a cooked beef steak. We confess to hav¬ 
ing never yet learned to love the taste of pure 
coffee itself, but boiled milk, and good sugar, with 
cream when it is to be had, flavored with well 
made coffee, is not “ bad to take.” Our obser¬ 
vation in traveling through the country has been, 
that not one family, or hotel, in five, habitually 
boils milk for coffee. Let the other four-fifths try 
boiling the milk for a few weeks, and our word 
for it, they will not return to raw milk. The 
slightly cathartic effect of coffee alluded to in a 
former article is probably about counterbalanced 
by boiling the milk, when any considerable quan¬ 
tity of it is used with the coffee. 
All we have written is for the benefit of those 
who will use coffee. If eels must be skinned we 
would try and show how to do it as scientifically 
as possible—at least until they “get used to it ” 
For reasons set forth last month, and before, we 
would advise no one to use tea or coffee except 
as a medicine. To the young we would say by 
all means avoid cultivating a taste for it. 
We have engravings made fora brief chapter 
on chicory which is used largely with coffee as an 
adulteration, and also of cocoa, or chocolate, but 
must defer their discussion to another paper. 
