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Wednesday, February 25, 2009

To Make Coffee

From the 1853 New England Economical Housekeeper and Family Receipt Book:

273. To Make Coffee

* For a two-quart coffee-pot, put in a tea-cup of ground coffee, a small piece of fish-skin; fill the coffee-pot nearly full of boiling water, boil it from three quarters to one hour, then fill it up, and let it settle ten minutes.

* Peas, roasted and ground, are an excellent substitute for coffee, and you would hardly know which was best.


My mother in law has given me a copy from 1853 of this amazing little book. I keep on thinking that this book was written BEFORE Abraham Lincoln was President and before we had a Civil War. And now it's in my hot little hands! You'll be seeing many more entries from this book....they are definitely worth enjoying. Now, be off with you and make a pot of coffee, would you?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

EWWWWWWWWWWWW! fish skin in coffee! peas as a coffee substitute! cook for one hour!

like, totally gross, man!

Anonymous said...

OMG, fish skin?!

And peas?? I really don't think peas are caffeinated. (Are they)

And, PS, you told me not to comment, so: mmmmmmhmmhm hmhmhmmhmmmhmmhm hmmhmhmmmhmhmhm.

LeLo said...

I'm looking forward to your live blogging the event of your first taste of roasted pea coffee.

Anonymous said...

HA!!! Funny! Thank goodness my wife already made the coffee and didn't use peas!!

Tony said...

Thankfully that's why God invented Starbucks :-)

Anonymous said...

We have a couple cookbooks that are what I thought VERY VERY old, and yours take the cup! I gots to google Fish Skin in coffee.....and I'm with LeLo....let us know when you're live blogging this one. Good Stuff! We LOVE odd cookbooks. Like the Oregon Trail book...it's all about the same: roasting raccoon, possum, whatever...all in a cast iron pot over a fire.

Anonymous said...

That "small piece of fish skin" ingredient is intriguing. Mr. Coffee sure has come a long way.

Iron Fist said...

So...should I come over for coffee?

Billy said...

Thank the Good Lord for a perculator/espresso machine...

Anonymous said...

I've never been a coffee drinker... now I know why.

Thanks for affirming my suspicions about the stuff!

-C