Never buy the ground coffee put up in packages, if you can get any other. The mere fact that after they have gone to the expense of the machinery and labor requisite for grinding it, the manufacturers can sell it cheaper per pound than grocers can the whole grains, roasted or raw, should convince every sensible person that it is adulterated with other and less expensive substances. Be that as it may, coffee loses its aroma so rapidly after it is ground that it is worth your while to buy it whole, either in small quantities freshly roasted, or raw, and roast it yourself; or stand by and see your respectable grocer grind what you have just bought. You can roast in a pan in the oven, stirring every few minutes, or in the same upon the top of the range. Stir often and roast quickly to a bright brown—not a dull black. While still hot, beat up the white of an egg with a tablespoonful of melted butter and stir up well with it. This will tend to preserve the flavor. Grind just enough at a time for a single making.

To make Coffee (boiled.)

• 1 full coffee-cup (½ pint) of ground coffee.
• 1 quart of boiling water.
• White of an egg, and crushed shell of same.
• ½ cup of cold water to settle it.

Stir up the eggshell and the white (beaten) with the coffee, and a very little cold water, and mix gradually with the boiling water in the coffee-boiler. Stir from the sides and top as it boils up. Boil pretty fast twelve minutes; pour in the cold water and take from the fire, setting gently upon the hearth to settle. In five minutes, pour it off carefully into your silver, china, or Britannia coffee-pot, which should be previously well scalded.

Send to table hot.

To make Coffee without Boiling.

There are so many patent coffee-pots for this purpose, and the directions sold with these are so minute, that I need give only a few general rules here. Allow rather more coffee to a given quantity of water than if it were to be boiled, and have it ground very fine. Put the coffee in the uppermost compartment, pour on the water very slowly until the fine coffee is saturated, then more rapidly. The water should be boiling. Shut down the top, and the coffee ought to be ready when it has gone through the double or treble set of strainers. Should it not be strong enough, run it through again.

CafÉ au Lait.

• 1 pint very strong made coffee—fresh and hot.
• 1 pint boiling milk.

The coffee should be poured off the grounds through a fine strainer (thin muslin is the best material) into the table coffee-pot. Add the milk, and set the pot where it will keep hot for five minutes before pouring it out.

Tea.

• 2 teaspoonfuls of tea to one large cupful of boiling water.

Scald the teapot well, put in the tea, and, covering close, set it on the stove or range one minute to warm; pour on enough boiling water to cover it well, and let it stand ten minutes to “draw.” Keep the lid of the pot shut, and set in a warm place, but do not let it boil. Fill up with as much boiling water as you will need, and send hot to the table, after pouring into a heated china or silver pot.

The bane of tea in many households is unboiled water. It can never extract the flavor as it should, although it steep for hours. The kettle should not only steam, but bubble and puff in a hard boil before you add water from it to the tea-leaves.

Boiling after the tea is made, injures the flavor either by deadening or making it rank and “herby.”

The English custom of making tea upon the breakfast or tea-table is fast gaining ground in America. It is at once the best and prettiest way of preparing the beverage.

Chocolate. ?

• 6 tablespoonfuls grated chocolate to each pint of water.
• As much milk as you have water.
• Sweeten to taste.

Put on the water boiling hot. Rub the chocolate smooth in a little cold water, and stir into the boiling water. Boil twenty minutes; add the milk and boil ten minutes more, stirring frequently. You can sweeten upon the fire or in the cups.

Wet the shells or nibs up with a little cold water; add to the boiling, and cook one hour and a half; strain, put in the milk, let it heat almost to boiling, and take from the fire.

This is excellent for invalids.

Prepared Cocoa. ?

• 1 quart of water, boiling.
• 2 ozs. prepared cocoa—Baker’s is best.
• 1 quart of milk.

Make as you do chocolate—only boil nearly an hour before you add the milk, afterward heating almost to boiling. Sweeten to taste.

Milk Tea (for Children.)

1 pint fresh milk and the same of boiling water. Sweeten to taste.

Raspberry Royal. ?

• 4 quarts ripe berries.
• 1 quart best cider vinegar.
• 1 lb. white sugar.
• 1 pint fine brandy.

Put the berries in a stone jar, pour the vinegar over them, add the sugar, and pound the berries to a paste with a wooden pestle, or mash with a spoon. Let them stand in the sun four hours; strain and squeeze out all the juice, and put in the brandy. Seal up in bottles; lay them on their sides in the cellar, and cover with sawdust.

Stir two tablespoonfuls into a tumbler of ice-water when you wish to use it.

Raspberry Vinegar. ?

Put the raspberries into a stone vessel and mash them to a pulp. Add cider-vinegar—no specious imitation, but the genuine article—enough to cover it well. Stand in the sun twelve hours, and all night in the cellar. Stir up well occasionally during this time. Strain, and put as many fresh berries in the jar as you took out; pour the strained vinegar over them; mash and set in the sun all day. Strain a second time next day. To each quart of this juice allow

• 1 pint of water.
• 5 lbs. of sugar (best white) for every 3 pints of this liquid, juice and water mingled.

Place over a gentle fire and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Heat slowly to boiling, skimming off the scum, and as soon as it fairly boils take off and strain. Bottle while warm, and seal the corks with sealing wax, or bees’-wax and rosin.

A most refreshing and pleasant drink.

Blackberry Vinegar

Is made in the same manner as raspberry, allowing 5½ lbs. sugar to 3 pints of juice and water.

Blackberry Cordial.

• 1 quart of blackberry juice.
• 1 lb. white sugar.
• ½ oz. grated nutmeg.
• ½ oz. powdered cinnamon.
• ¼ oz. allspice.
• ¼ oz. cloves.
• 1 pint best brandy.

Tie the spices in thin muslin bags; boil juice, sugar, and spices together fifteen minutes, skimming well; add the brandy; set aside in a closely covered vessel to cool. When perfectly cold, strain out the spices, and bottle, sealing the corks.

Elderberry Wine.

• 8 quarts of berries.
• 4 quarts of boiling water poured over the berries.

Let it stand twelve hours, stirring now and then. Strain well, pressing out all the juice. Add

• 3 lbs. of sugar to 4 quarts of juice.
• 1 oz. powdered cinnamon.
• ½ oz. powdered cloves.

Boil five minutes, and set away to ferment in a stone jar, with a cloth thrown lightly over it. When it has done fermenting, rack it off carefully, not to disturb the lees. Bottle and cork down well.

Cranberry Wine.

• Mash ripe berries to a pulp; put into a stone jar.
• Add 1 quart of water to 2 quarts of berries.

Stir well and let it stand two days. Strain through a double flannel bag; mash a second supply of berries, equal in quantity to the first, and cover with this liquid. Steep two days more; strain; add

• 1 lb. sugar for 3 quarts of liquor,

and boil five minutes. Let it ferment in lightly covered jars; rack off and bottle.

This is said to be very good for scrofula.

Strawberry Wine.

3 quarts of strawberries, mashed and strained. To the juice (there should be about a quart, if the berries are ripe and fresh) add

• 1 quart of water.
• 1 lb. of sugar.

Stir up well and ferment in a clean, sweet cask, leaving the bung out. When the working subsides close tightly, or rack off into bottles.

This is said by those who have tasted it to be very good.

Currant Wine.

Pick, stem, mash, and strain the currants, which should be very ripe.

• To 1 quart of juice add
• ¾ lb. white sugar.
• ½ pint of water.

Stir all together long and well; put into a clean cask, leaving out the bung, and covering the whole with a bit of lace or mosquito net. Let it ferment about four weeks—rack off when it is quite still, and bottle.

Jamaica Ginger-beer.

• 1 bottle Jamaica Ginger Extract.
• 1 oz. cream-tartar.
• 6 quarts water.
• 1 lb. sugar.

Stir until the sugar is melted, then put in the grated peel of a lemon, and heat until blood-warm. Add a tablespoonful of brewers’ yeast; stir well and bottle, wiring down the corks. It will be fit for use in four days.

This is a refreshing and healthful beverage mixed with pounded ice in hot weather.

Raisin Wine.

• 1 lb. white sugar.
• 2 lbs. raisins, seeded and chopped.
• 1 lemon—all the juice and half the grated peel.
• 2 gallons boiling water.

Put all into a stone jar, and stir every day for a week. Strain, then, and bottle it. It will be fit for use in ten days.

Lemonade or Sherbet.

• 3 lemons to a quart of water.
• 6 tablespoonfuls of sugar.

Pare the yellow peel from the lemons, and, unless you mean to use the Sherbet immediately, leave it out. It gives a bitter taste to the sugar if left long in it. Slice and squeeze the lemons upon the sugar, add a very little water, and let them stand fifteen minutes. Then fill up with water; ice well, stir, and pour out.

Orangeade

Is made in the same manner, substituting oranges for lemons.

Strawberry Sherbet. (Delicious.) ?

• 1 quart of strawberries.
• 3 pints of water.
• 1 lemon—the juice only.
• 1 tablespoonful orange-flower water.
• ¾ lb. white sugar.

The strawberries should be fresh and ripe. Crush to a smooth paste; add the rest of the ingredients (except the sugar), and let it stand three hours. Strain over the sugar, squeezing the cloth hard; stir until the sugar is dissolved; strain again and set in ice for two hours or more before you use it.

Regent’s Punch. (Fine.)

• 1 lb. loaf-sugar or rock candy.
• 1 large cup strong black tea—(made).
• 3 wineglasses of brandy.
• 3 wineglasses of rum.
• 1 bottle champagne.
• 2 oranges—juice only.
• 3 lemons—juice only.
• 1 large lump of ice.

This receipt was given me by a gentleman of the old school, a connoisseur in the matter of beverages as of cookery. “Tell your readers,” he writes, “that better punch was never brewed.” I give receipt and message together.

Roman Punch.

• 3 coffee cups of lemonade—(strong and sweet.)
• 1 glass champagne.
• 1 glass rum.
• 2 oranges—juice only.
• 2 eggs—whites only—well whipped.
• ½ lb. powdered sugar, beaten into the stiffened whites.

You must ice abundantly—or, if you prefer, freeze.

Sherry Cobbler.

• Several slices of pineapple, cut in quarters.
• A lemon, sliced thin.
• An orange, sliced thin.
• ½ cup of powdered sugar.
• 1 tumbler of Sherry wine.
• Ice-water.
• Pounded ice.

Take a wide-mouthed quart pitcher and lay the sliced fruit in order at the bottom, sprinkling sugar and pounded ice between the layers. Cover with sugar and ice, and let all stand together five minutes. Add then two tumblers of water and all the sugar, and stir well to dissolve this. Fill the pitcher nearly full of pounded ice, pour in the wine, and stir up from the bottom until the ingredients are thoroughly mixed. In pouring it out put a slice of each kind of fruit in each goblet before adding the liquid.

It is best sucked through a straw or glass tube.

Nectar. ?

Make as above, substituting a little rose-water for the pineapple, and squeezing out the juice of the orange and lemon, instead of putting in the slices. Sprinkle nutmeg on the top.

This forms a delicious and refreshing drink for invalids.

Claret Punch. ?

• 1 bottle of claret.
• ¼ the quantity of ice-water.
• 2 lemons, sliced.
• ½ cup powdered sugar.

Cover the sliced lemon with sugar and let it stand ten minutes. Add the water; stir hard for a whole minute, and pour in the wine. Put pounded ice in each glass before filling with the mixture.

Egg Nogg. ?

• 6 eggs—whites and yolks beaten separately and very stiff.
• 1 quart rich milk.
• ½ cup of sugar.
• ½ pint best brandy.
• Flavor with nutmeg.

Stir the yolks into the milk with the sugar, which should first be beaten with the yolks. Next comes the brandy. Lastly whip in the whites of three eggs.

Cherry Bounce.

• 4 lbs. of sour and the same quantity of sweet cherries.
• 2½ lbs. white sugar.
• 1 gallon best whiskey.

Crush the cherries to pieces by pounding in a deep wooden vessel with a smooth billet of wood. Beat hard enough to crack all the stones. Put into a deep stone jar, mix in the sugar well, and cover with the whiskey. Shake around briskly and turn into a demijohn. Cork tightly and let it stand a month, shaking it every day, and another month without touching it. Then strain off and bottle.

It is better a year than six months old.

If the Maltese cross appears but seldom in the section devoted to drinks, it is because most of my information respecting their manufacture is second-hand. In my own family they are so little used, except in sickness, that I should not dare to teach others, upon my own authority, how to prepare them. Indeed, the temptation I felt to omit many of them reminded me of a remark made, introductory of preserves, by one of the “Complete Housewives,” who, all five together, drove me to the verge of an attack of congestion of the brain, before I had been a housekeeper for a week. Said this judicious lady:—“Preserves of all kinds are expensive and indigestible, and therefore poisonous. Therefore”—again—“I shall not give directions for their manufacture, except to remark that barberries stewed in molasses are economical, and a degree less hurtful than most others of that class of compounds.”

Then I reflected that I might, upon the same principle, exclude all receipts in which cocoanut is used, because it is rank poison to me; while a dear friend of mine would as soon touch arsenic as an egg. A large majority of the beverages I have named are highly medicinal, and deserve a place in the housekeeper’s calendar on that account. Many, so far from being hurtful, are beneficial to a weak stomach or a system suffering under general debility. None which contain alcohol in any shape should be used daily, much less semi- or tri-daily by a well person.

This principle reduced to practice would prove the preventive ounce which would cure, all over the land, the need for Temperance Societies and Inebriate Asylums.

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