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Classic
Cook Books
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page 410
Many drop a tiny piece of sweet butter into their cup of hot coffee as a
substitute for cream.
TO MAKE TEA.
Allow two teaspoonfuls of tea to one large cupful of boiling water. Scald the
teapot, put in the tea, pour on about a cupful of boiling water, set it on the
fire in a warm place where it will not boil, but keep very hot, to almost
boiling; let it steep or "draw" ten or twelve minutes. Now fill up with as much
boiling water as is required. Send hot to the table. It is better to use a china
or porcelain teapot, but if you do use metal let it be tin, new, bright and
clean; never use it when the tin is worn off and the iron exposed. If you do you
are drinking tea-ate of iron.
To make tea to perfection, boiling water must be poured on the leaves directly
it boils. Water which has been boiling more than five minutes, or which has
previously boiled, should on no account be used. If the water does not boil, or
if it be allowed to overboil, the leaves of the tea will be only half-opened and
the tea itself will be quite spoiled. The water should be allowed to remain on
the leaves from ten to fifteen minutes.
A Chinese being interviewed for the Cook says: Drink your tea plain. Don't add
milk or sugar. Tea-brokers and tea-tasters never do; epicures never do; the
Chinese never do. Milk contains fibrin, albumen or some other stuff, and the tea
a delicate amount of tannin. Mixing the two makes the liquid turbid. This
turbidity, if I remember the cyclopædia aright, is tannate of fibrin, or
leather. People who put milk in tea are therefore drinking boots and shoes in
mild disguise.
ICED TEA.
Is now served to a considerable extent during the summer months. It is of course
used without milk, and the addition of sugar serves only to destroy the finer
tea flavor. It may be prepared some hours in advance, and should be made
stronger than when served hot. It is bottled and placed in the ice-chest till
required. Use the black or green teas, or both, mixed, as fancied.
CHOCOLATE.
Allow half a cupful of grated chocolate to a pint of water and a pint of milk.
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 it
often. Sweeten to your taste.
The French put two cupfuls of boiling water to each cupful of chocolate.
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Classic
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