A lot of snark and boy troubles this month.
POOR JANE: - All our readers of Answers to Correspondents know very well that we make no invidious distinctions between the upper classes and the poor. You have certainly no cause for complaint, since we answered your first letter at once. The tone of this second letter is impertinent, in suggesting that perhaps we shall not reply "because you are poor". You are mistaken in thinking that the use of a "J" pen will make you "write like a lady". Write careful copies with any pen you like. We do not care to advertise books on palmistry.
E.G.A.C.B.: - How many initials you need for identification! The rule is for the lady to bow first, and then the man to take off his hat. There is no occasion for stopping to speak in the street; far better not to do so.
ELEANOR M.E.:- You might do so in private, and it would give pleasure. But you do well in pausing to ask advice in such matters.
SIS WIN:- No girl at seventeen should be liable to forget herself in saying or doing what is indiscreet. She should not be so taken by surprise by words or acts of others as to be betrayed into making unwise confidences, nor consenting to unsuitable proposals. If self-possessed, she will be armed against indiscretion. Your writing is stiff - does not slope the right way.
WHITE HEATHER:- It is said "Doctors differ, and patients die"; so we do not desire to render "confusion worse confounded" in your case, which appears to have proved a bone of contention amongst your advisers so far. Your person and circumstances are quite unknown to us, and we could not venture to solve the difficult question. Getting all your teeth extracted seems to us like horse practice.
ELIZABETH B:- On no account marry any man that you neither have nor feel confidence in his late improvement in conduct. If the very thought of marrying him makes you ill, and you are not strong, do not be persuaded to do so. No parent has any right natural or legal to force a child into a marriage against her inclination. Tell your mistress all your trouble, and remain in your situation. You would be quite justified in going away unknown, if you had any respectable place to go to, and that were your only way of escape. In any case, even when in the church you can say "No!" when the clergyman asks you whether you will have the man. Tell your case to a magistrate and ask for his protection.
TROUBLED SIS: It is not only indiscreet, but wrong, to correspond with any man other than with him to whom you are engaged; more especially when he had the audacity to put you "on your honour not to show the letters" and presumes to address you as "Darling Sis!" Of course your affianced husband has a right to see the letters of any man who writes to you. His chatting in a friendly way, or even flirting with a lady friend, does not justify you in doing the same. If he does wrong, why should you follow suit? Be off with the old love before you are on with the new.
HAMLET:- You need to be taught to ride a tricycle and to wear a suitable dress that will not be entangled in the wheels. Under other circumstances it would be dangerous to ride one.
LIZZIE LANDSDOWNE should make rosemary tea just as she would make drinking tea, or sage tea for application to a sunburnt face.
J.H.:- WE do not think you could teach, or rather un-teach your bird its present habit of taking its bath without a companion to give it a lesson. Of course it would not understand how to begin.
IVY LEAF must find something useful and interesting to think about. An idle mind will naturally dream and wander like a rudderless ship. The cure depends on her own will.
A.B.C. has no idea of versification.
ONE OF THE GIRLS:- Your lines show religious feeling, not genius.
GERTRUDE M. DUTTRY:- The lines have some merits, but the handwriting is extremely hard to decipher, and also ugly.
MARIE STUART:- We advise our taking more exercise, leaving off tea and coffee, and stimulants if you take them. Take cocoa instead, also fruit cooked and uncooked, and cultivate happiness in yourself; it will grow if you really begin to see the bright side of life.
F.M.T.W.:- The person who wrote your quotation must have been ignorant and foolish to the last degree; the Coronation Stone, even for its antiquity and association, is an interesting and wonderful relic.
SPRING FLOWERS:- The composition you send to us for insertion is of the usual schoolgirl kind. By-and-by you may do better, and achieve some originality of thought.
HELEN:- It is anything but "the beauty of the hair to be so greasy"! Wash it once a week, and keep it thoroughly brushed daily, using clean brushes perpetually.
Showing posts with label 1887. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1887. Show all posts
Tuesday, 29 December 2015
Thursday, 3 October 2013
12 March 1887 - 'How to Obtain Good Coffee'
"If we wish our coffee to be extra clear, a raw egg should be mashed up, shell and all, into a slopbasin full of coffee-powder, and boiled as before." Nope.
We have generally been accustomed to have France held up to us as the country for really good coffee. Within the last few years this old dictum has certainly been vastly modified, for not only has Vienna almost outrivalled France, but in England great improvements have been made, although, even now, at many hotels, railway refreshment rooms, and on steamboats, the coffee is an abomination.
In winter it is sell worthwhile for housewives to give their earnest attention to the making of this beverage, as coffee possesses considerable heat-imparting properties, and to most constitutions it is harmless and far more caloric to the system than an equal quantity of alcohol - that is to say, if it is strong and properly made. An impression seems to exist in England that there is some secret mystery attached to coffee-making above the comprehension of ordinary mortals. There is no secret whatsoever, and it only requires care and common sense to make the best coffee in the world. Without going into recipes, the following broad principles should be impressed on a housewife. First, have coffee; a great deal of the stuff we drink is not coffee at all. I should strongly advise the coffee to be entirely without chicory; the chicory may add somewhat to the strength, but at the loss of the flavour. Chicory is a good deal used in France, and also in Rome, but it is best not employed at all, as the low price of it, compared with coffee, offers an inducement for the introduction of an overdose. Those who have the means of roasting coffee berries at their command should always buy them unroasted, and perform the operation themselves. When they are roasted, care should be taken to keep them in an airtight receptacle, the best form being wide-necked bottles with glass stoppers; for coffee, like tea, quickly catches up foreign flavours and scents, and all possibility of contamination should therefore be carefully avoided. Highly sensitive in its raw state, it is far more so when roasted; even ship-cargoes of coffee have been completely spoiled, due to their being inadvertently stowed in company with spirits, pungent spices, and fruits.
Every continental cook and housewife roasts her own coffee, and yet our cooks, as a rule, resolutely set their faces against this. If the mistress would only take the trouble of superintending this operation once or twice, she would soon find that there was no mystery, and that only care was needed to roast it to a nicety. If not sufficiently roasted, the true flavour will not be extracted, and if roasted for too long a time it becomes bitter. Various machines are used for roasting; but the simplest is perhaps a frying pan. The coffee should be previously washed, then place the beans in the pan over not too fierce a fire, and stir them gently with a spoon until they are not a dark mahogany colour, but not black; take them off the fire, and allow them to cool. No interval should elapse between roasting and grinding, and the oftener it is roasted the better. For all ordinary purposes twice a week is sufficient. No one who desires good coffee can get on without a coffee mill, which is easily obtained at a trifling cost in any size. It is a bad plan to let the grocer grind the berry, and send it home at his convenience; for this means a lapse of time between the grinding and the making, which is quite fatal to the preservation of the aroma. In many eastern countries the beans are pounded in a mortar instead of ground. Coffee beans should be kept in a dry place, and are greatly improved for keeping a long time.
Neat-handedness and judgment, so necessary for cooking an omelet, are quite as much required for the perfect making of coffee. As soon as the coffee is ground no time should intervene before the boiling water is poured upon it, and even in applying the water there is something in the dexterity with which it is done. More strength is obtained by simple boiling than by any other plan; but we must take care not to overboil it. The water must be boiling. If the coffee is put in all at once, the coffee pot or pan should be placed over a gentle fire and just allowed to come up to the boil two or three times, and each time quickly removed. Before letting it settle, pour out a cup or two of the liquid, and return it immediately to the vessel, or else pour in half a cupful of boiling water. Then place it near the fire for a few minutes and pour it out gently, or strain it through a fine filter or flannel bag into the coffee pot for the breakfast table. In France they usually merely filter; but it makes the coffee less strong. If we wish our coffee to be extra clear, a raw egg should be mashed up, shell and all, into a slopbasin full of coffee, and boil as before.
Professor Liebig's method of boiling half of the coffee for a few minutes, and then putting in the other half without letting it boil, has its advantages. The first half of the process extracts the strength, and the latter preserves the aroma.
Of all the coffee machines in use, perhaps none is simpler than the French percolator, which consists of one coffee-pot on the top of another, the upper being for the making of the infusion, the lower for the infusion itself when it has filtered through.
Those who like to see their coffee made on the breakfast-table can use the pretty French invention for making coffee, consisting of two glass globes, one above the other, with a spiral lamp beneath. The water is placed in the lower globe, and is forced up by the heat to the coffee, which is in the upper globe. The lamp is then removed, and the coffee flows into the lower globe, from whence it is drawn off.
The Viennese have perhaps the best coffee machines, notably the Non Plus Ultra. The Napier Coffee-Pot, a Glasgow machine, is very simple and most expeditious. Both of these are very suitable for the sideboard. The latter is specially useful for being able to warm coffee a second time, for we have only to light the spirit lamp under the glass globe in which the coffee has been left. The mouth of the globe, however, must be tightly corked up to preserve the aroma when it is left standing in the globe, but it must be removed before the spirit-lamp is lit.
A little muslin bag containing coffee, and fitted into the top of the coffee pot, and the boiling water poured on, makes very excellent coffee.
Some eccentric people infuse it cold, allowing it to stand for a long time, and heat it just before serving it; but this is rather too elaborate a method to be frequently adopted.
The Germans make their coffee as above described, except that they use a flannel bag instead of a muslin one. They pour the boiling water on, and let it boil up once, and then serve. The water runs through the bag into the lower part of the pot, so that the liquid is quite clear without fining. This is one of the most economical ways of making coffee; but plenty of coffee must be put in.
Coffee is often so weak that it will not admit of boiled milk. It is an entirely mistaken economy to think that we can make up for the want of a sufficient amount of coffee by infusing a small quantity for a long time.; Whether brewing for a few people or many, the infusion must be strong and bright. For each cup two or three good teaspoonfuls of coffee are not too much; but of course it is a matter of taste. There is no better breakfast beverage than a good cup of cafe-au-lait, and whether intended for that or cafe noir it should be equally strong.
The Eastern or Arabic fashion of making coffee is the simplest and most primitive of all; it only consists of pouring boiling water upon the coffee in a tin pot and letting it boil for a minute. This is not likely to become a favourite method with us, as the grouts would remain at the bottom, but with the Eastern peoples, since they pulverise the berry, their residuum is a delicate, soft, almost toothsome one, resembling in consistency soft chocolate. Connoisseurs have had many disputes as to whether coffee should be ground of pulverised. Brillat Savarin, king of the gastronomes, held a council of his friends and disciples, who decided, after mature deliberation, in favour of pulverisation, as yielding the fullest flavour of the aroma.
As to the choice of the berry, this again is a matter of individual preference; but generally a mixture of several sorts, as with tea, produces the most satisfactory result. The best "Mocha" coffee has now become an entire fallacy, for we have more of this breakfast or cigarette-accompanying beverage from Madras, Central America, and Ceylon, than any other parts. In France the perfect mixture is said to be composed of equal parts of Mocha, Bourbon, and Martinique's coffee.
We do not drink as much coffee as we might with advantage, and only perhaps on this score is much blame to be attached to us as a coffee-making nation. It matters little nowadays of what nationality coffee makers are, provided there is skill and common sense, coup'ed with the practice that makes perfect.
We have generally been accustomed to have France held up to us as the country for really good coffee. Within the last few years this old dictum has certainly been vastly modified, for not only has Vienna almost outrivalled France, but in England great improvements have been made, although, even now, at many hotels, railway refreshment rooms, and on steamboats, the coffee is an abomination.
In winter it is sell worthwhile for housewives to give their earnest attention to the making of this beverage, as coffee possesses considerable heat-imparting properties, and to most constitutions it is harmless and far more caloric to the system than an equal quantity of alcohol - that is to say, if it is strong and properly made. An impression seems to exist in England that there is some secret mystery attached to coffee-making above the comprehension of ordinary mortals. There is no secret whatsoever, and it only requires care and common sense to make the best coffee in the world. Without going into recipes, the following broad principles should be impressed on a housewife. First, have coffee; a great deal of the stuff we drink is not coffee at all. I should strongly advise the coffee to be entirely without chicory; the chicory may add somewhat to the strength, but at the loss of the flavour. Chicory is a good deal used in France, and also in Rome, but it is best not employed at all, as the low price of it, compared with coffee, offers an inducement for the introduction of an overdose. Those who have the means of roasting coffee berries at their command should always buy them unroasted, and perform the operation themselves. When they are roasted, care should be taken to keep them in an airtight receptacle, the best form being wide-necked bottles with glass stoppers; for coffee, like tea, quickly catches up foreign flavours and scents, and all possibility of contamination should therefore be carefully avoided. Highly sensitive in its raw state, it is far more so when roasted; even ship-cargoes of coffee have been completely spoiled, due to their being inadvertently stowed in company with spirits, pungent spices, and fruits.
Every continental cook and housewife roasts her own coffee, and yet our cooks, as a rule, resolutely set their faces against this. If the mistress would only take the trouble of superintending this operation once or twice, she would soon find that there was no mystery, and that only care was needed to roast it to a nicety. If not sufficiently roasted, the true flavour will not be extracted, and if roasted for too long a time it becomes bitter. Various machines are used for roasting; but the simplest is perhaps a frying pan. The coffee should be previously washed, then place the beans in the pan over not too fierce a fire, and stir them gently with a spoon until they are not a dark mahogany colour, but not black; take them off the fire, and allow them to cool. No interval should elapse between roasting and grinding, and the oftener it is roasted the better. For all ordinary purposes twice a week is sufficient. No one who desires good coffee can get on without a coffee mill, which is easily obtained at a trifling cost in any size. It is a bad plan to let the grocer grind the berry, and send it home at his convenience; for this means a lapse of time between the grinding and the making, which is quite fatal to the preservation of the aroma. In many eastern countries the beans are pounded in a mortar instead of ground. Coffee beans should be kept in a dry place, and are greatly improved for keeping a long time.
Neat-handedness and judgment, so necessary for cooking an omelet, are quite as much required for the perfect making of coffee. As soon as the coffee is ground no time should intervene before the boiling water is poured upon it, and even in applying the water there is something in the dexterity with which it is done. More strength is obtained by simple boiling than by any other plan; but we must take care not to overboil it. The water must be boiling. If the coffee is put in all at once, the coffee pot or pan should be placed over a gentle fire and just allowed to come up to the boil two or three times, and each time quickly removed. Before letting it settle, pour out a cup or two of the liquid, and return it immediately to the vessel, or else pour in half a cupful of boiling water. Then place it near the fire for a few minutes and pour it out gently, or strain it through a fine filter or flannel bag into the coffee pot for the breakfast table. In France they usually merely filter; but it makes the coffee less strong. If we wish our coffee to be extra clear, a raw egg should be mashed up, shell and all, into a slopbasin full of coffee, and boil as before.
Professor Liebig's method of boiling half of the coffee for a few minutes, and then putting in the other half without letting it boil, has its advantages. The first half of the process extracts the strength, and the latter preserves the aroma.
Of all the coffee machines in use, perhaps none is simpler than the French percolator, which consists of one coffee-pot on the top of another, the upper being for the making of the infusion, the lower for the infusion itself when it has filtered through.
Those who like to see their coffee made on the breakfast-table can use the pretty French invention for making coffee, consisting of two glass globes, one above the other, with a spiral lamp beneath. The water is placed in the lower globe, and is forced up by the heat to the coffee, which is in the upper globe. The lamp is then removed, and the coffee flows into the lower globe, from whence it is drawn off.
The Viennese have perhaps the best coffee machines, notably the Non Plus Ultra. The Napier Coffee-Pot, a Glasgow machine, is very simple and most expeditious. Both of these are very suitable for the sideboard. The latter is specially useful for being able to warm coffee a second time, for we have only to light the spirit lamp under the glass globe in which the coffee has been left. The mouth of the globe, however, must be tightly corked up to preserve the aroma when it is left standing in the globe, but it must be removed before the spirit-lamp is lit.
A little muslin bag containing coffee, and fitted into the top of the coffee pot, and the boiling water poured on, makes very excellent coffee.
Some eccentric people infuse it cold, allowing it to stand for a long time, and heat it just before serving it; but this is rather too elaborate a method to be frequently adopted.
The Germans make their coffee as above described, except that they use a flannel bag instead of a muslin one. They pour the boiling water on, and let it boil up once, and then serve. The water runs through the bag into the lower part of the pot, so that the liquid is quite clear without fining. This is one of the most economical ways of making coffee; but plenty of coffee must be put in.
Coffee is often so weak that it will not admit of boiled milk. It is an entirely mistaken economy to think that we can make up for the want of a sufficient amount of coffee by infusing a small quantity for a long time.; Whether brewing for a few people or many, the infusion must be strong and bright. For each cup two or three good teaspoonfuls of coffee are not too much; but of course it is a matter of taste. There is no better breakfast beverage than a good cup of cafe-au-lait, and whether intended for that or cafe noir it should be equally strong.
The Eastern or Arabic fashion of making coffee is the simplest and most primitive of all; it only consists of pouring boiling water upon the coffee in a tin pot and letting it boil for a minute. This is not likely to become a favourite method with us, as the grouts would remain at the bottom, but with the Eastern peoples, since they pulverise the berry, their residuum is a delicate, soft, almost toothsome one, resembling in consistency soft chocolate. Connoisseurs have had many disputes as to whether coffee should be ground of pulverised. Brillat Savarin, king of the gastronomes, held a council of his friends and disciples, who decided, after mature deliberation, in favour of pulverisation, as yielding the fullest flavour of the aroma.
As to the choice of the berry, this again is a matter of individual preference; but generally a mixture of several sorts, as with tea, produces the most satisfactory result. The best "Mocha" coffee has now become an entire fallacy, for we have more of this breakfast or cigarette-accompanying beverage from Madras, Central America, and Ceylon, than any other parts. In France the perfect mixture is said to be composed of equal parts of Mocha, Bourbon, and Martinique's coffee.
We do not drink as much coffee as we might with advantage, and only perhaps on this score is much blame to be attached to us as a coffee-making nation. It matters little nowadays of what nationality coffee makers are, provided there is skill and common sense, coup'ed with the practice that makes perfect.
Wednesday, 4 April 2012
12 November, 1887 - Answers to Correspondents - Miscellaneous
YOUNG GIRL: - At your early age (fifteen years) the less you read in the way of novels the better. Better be satisfied with history and travels, in the brief space of time free for recreation in the way of reading. In any case, we can only say in such matters, consult your mother. If she sanction your reading any particular work of fiction, well and good. She will probably allow you to read those in prose and verse by Sir Walter Scott.
RATTLE-CAP:- You are an infant in the eye of the law until you attain twenty-one years of age. If in the upper class of society you ought to be in the schoolroom, and go to bed early at your age (sixteen). If in a lower class you are old enough to be apprenticed to some trade, or to enter domestic service under an older and more experienced servant.
"YOUNG LADY OF TWELVE":- YOu should ride out with your father, or brother if old enough, or else with some grown-up lady. But your mother is the right person to decide such matters for you. It is not for you to take a stranger's opinion and to regulate your conduct. The name Mozart is pronounced as spelt. Beethoven as Bet-o-ven, Chopin as Sho-pain, the French for bread; the last syllable being nasal in the French style. If you do not speak that language, we cannot explain by writing. Inquire for the duets you require at a music shop.
RATTLE-CAP:- You are an infant in the eye of the law until you attain twenty-one years of age. If in the upper class of society you ought to be in the schoolroom, and go to bed early at your age (sixteen). If in a lower class you are old enough to be apprenticed to some trade, or to enter domestic service under an older and more experienced servant.
"YOUNG LADY OF TWELVE":- YOu should ride out with your father, or brother if old enough, or else with some grown-up lady. But your mother is the right person to decide such matters for you. It is not for you to take a stranger's opinion and to regulate your conduct. The name Mozart is pronounced as spelt. Beethoven as Bet-o-ven, Chopin as Sho-pain, the French for bread; the last syllable being nasal in the French style. If you do not speak that language, we cannot explain by writing. Inquire for the duets you require at a music shop.
8 October, 1887 - Useful Hints - French Stewed Steak, or Other Meat - How To Boil Rice as in India
French Stewed Steak, or Other Meat
The peculiarity of this method is that the gravy is always prepared before putting in the meat and vegetables.
Place in the stewpan two ounces of butter, and when thoroughly melted add a tablespoonful of flour, enough to absorb the butter, leaving sufficient moisture to stir easily about till it becomes a rich brown colour; this will take fifteen minutes. If you wish for a paler gravy, for what is called a white ragout, the mixture must be taken off the fire while it is still pale, adding three turnips sliced, two onions sliced, the steak at the top. The turnis to be laid at the bottom of the stewpan, then the onions, lastly the steak. No water - this is important.
Stew them until tender - one hour and a half or more - then take out the steak, strain the gravy from the vegetables through a sieve, take off the fat; mix it in a basin with a teaspoonful of flour, add pepper and salt, mix it all well together, then add the gravy to the vegetables; give it one boil up and pour it over the steak, and put the steak in the stewpan till wanted. Be careful to shake the pan occasionally to prevent the steak burning; flavour it to your taste.
How to Boil Rice as in India
Two quarts of water, one pint of rice, one tablespoonful of salt.
When the water is boiling throw in a tablespoonful of salt, then the rice, after it has been well washed in cold water; let it boil twenty minutes; throw it into a colander and strain off the water. When the water is well drained off put the rice back into the same saucepan, dried by the fire, and let it stand near the fire for some minutes, till required to be dished up; thus the grains appear separately and not mashed into a pudding. Excellent with a little butter.
The peculiarity of this method is that the gravy is always prepared before putting in the meat and vegetables.
Place in the stewpan two ounces of butter, and when thoroughly melted add a tablespoonful of flour, enough to absorb the butter, leaving sufficient moisture to stir easily about till it becomes a rich brown colour; this will take fifteen minutes. If you wish for a paler gravy, for what is called a white ragout, the mixture must be taken off the fire while it is still pale, adding three turnips sliced, two onions sliced, the steak at the top. The turnis to be laid at the bottom of the stewpan, then the onions, lastly the steak. No water - this is important.
Stew them until tender - one hour and a half or more - then take out the steak, strain the gravy from the vegetables through a sieve, take off the fat; mix it in a basin with a teaspoonful of flour, add pepper and salt, mix it all well together, then add the gravy to the vegetables; give it one boil up and pour it over the steak, and put the steak in the stewpan till wanted. Be careful to shake the pan occasionally to prevent the steak burning; flavour it to your taste.
How to Boil Rice as in India
Two quarts of water, one pint of rice, one tablespoonful of salt.
When the water is boiling throw in a tablespoonful of salt, then the rice, after it has been well washed in cold water; let it boil twenty minutes; throw it into a colander and strain off the water. When the water is well drained off put the rice back into the same saucepan, dried by the fire, and let it stand near the fire for some minutes, till required to be dished up; thus the grains appear separately and not mashed into a pudding. Excellent with a little butter.
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