To Boil Coffee

Instructions

1. Put the necessary quantity of water into a pot which it will not fill by some inches. Proportions: coffee, 2 oz.; water, 1 pint to 1 quart, according to the strength required.
2. When it boils, stir in the coffee. Unless the coffee is at once moistened it will remain on the top and be liable to fly over.
3. Give it one or two strong boils, then raise it from the fire and simmer it for ten minutes only.
4. Pour out a large cupful twice, holding it high over the coffee pot and pouring it in again each time.
5. Set it on the stove where it will keep hot without simmering or moving in the least, for ten minutes longer. It will be perfectly clear, unless mismanaged, without any other fining.
6. Should further fining be thought necessary, a very small pinch of isinglass, or a clean egg-shell with a little of the white adhering to it, is the best that can be used.
7. Never use mustard to fine coffee. Acton calls it a barbarous custom, of which she has heard foreigners who have been in England vehemently complain.
8. Remark (Acton): filtering is a far more economical and in every way a superior mode of making coffee than boiling it; she inserts this receipt only because some persons still prefer the old method.