How to prepare coffee

[Silas]

This link is from Camp Fires and Camp Cooking; or, Culinary Hints for the Soldier, etc by Captain James Sanderson, commissary of subsistence of volunteers. "Published for distribution to the troops" by Headquarters, Army of the Potomac, January, 1862. Link : http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Q...page&q&f=false This book has come to my attention because a Civil War Roundtable, local to me, posted something about this book on their facebook feed.

All the recipes in this book are designed for groups of soldiers, not individual soldiers. However, many can still be applied to individuals. It does have some good hints. I embed these two pages because they support what I've been saying for years : boil the water first, then add the coffee.






There are other period examples, Osborn H. Oldroyd's Vicksburg diary comes to mind :

[rbruno]

Re: How to prepare coffee

Silas, What is the reason for "dashing in" a cup of cold water in the coffee?
I would love to see someone make bread like that at an event. Maybe not that much, but that would be interesting to see all those parts made and then put into a loaf of bread.

[Palmyra Possum]

Re: How to prepare coffee

It causes the grounds to sink.

[Silas]

Re: How to prepare coffee

The "boil the water first" method is how a well known company directs how coffee should be brewed : http://www.authentic-campaigner.com/...2290#post52290

Cold water helps settle the grounds. Or you could just wait another couple minutes for the grounds to settle on their own. I make coffee at home the same way I do in the field. In a tin boiler. At home, I let the grounds brew for seven minutes then run the liquid through a fine strainer nestled atop my cup. Eight minutes will have fewer grounds than seven. At ten minutes, there are virtually no grounds floating in the boiler, which makes a screen unnecessary. A slow, gentle pour keeps the settled grounds in the boiler.

If you want good coffee in the field, make it at home in the same boiler like I do. With regular practice, you learn what works and what doesn't.

[Craig L Barry]

Re: How to prepare coffee

That source is pure gold...great find.

[Johnny Lloyd]

Re: How to prepare coffee

How about just boiled roasted, whole beans- it takes longer, but the beans can be saved for another time... :)

[Silas]

Re: How to prepare coffee

Whole beans? Please tell me you're joking. That's blasphemy. Follow the link I provided in my second post in this thread - fourth actual post herein - for information I obtained directly from Starbucks on how to brew coffee.

[BobRoeder]

Re: How to prepare coffee

Just an interesting quote from Letters of William F. Wagner [Co. E, 57th NCT], after Winchester II, June 1863. He wrote (his spelling), "...I never saw as many things at one plase in my life cloathing and Rashins and wagons and sugar and coffey Reddy ground up I got a little pocket fool of coffey and a new haversack and a shirt...".

[Johnny Lloyd]

Re: How to prepare coffee

Whole beans? Please tell me you're joking. That's blasphemy. Follow the link I provided in my second post in this thread - fourth actual post herein - for information I obtained directly from Starbucks on how to brew coffee.

Yep- takes awhile longer, but it can be done. Yes, it is probably blasphemy. LOL

[LibertyHallVols]

Re: How to prepare coffee

I've tried using whole beans, but after a long, long boil, I still had a weak brew, lacking in the invigorating effect and rich flavor I desire. I'd guess that Billy and Johnny would agree... ;-)

[john duffer]

Re: How to prepare coffee

I always used whole beans. Admittedly the first cup was warm water with a brown tint but each reuse got stronger and I found I could have a couple weak cups and be into a second good one long before others finished crushing beans. Plus no grit. To each his own :).

[Johnny Lloyd]

Re: How to prepare coffee

Y'all are doing it wrong. Soak the whole beans overnight in your boiler. Put them on the fire in the morning. When the beans mostly fall to the bottom, it is done. Save the beans in a handkerchief and you can either eat them on a march for the caffeine or save them for another boil.

Do this if you are playing grey with no real coffee ration. Adds an element realism when coffee is scarce per period account and you have to save your coffee for the whole weekend. It is a challenge for us caffeine hounds. ;)

[Milliron]

Re: How to prepare coffee

How about just boiled roasted, whole beans- it takes longer, but the beans can be saved for another time... :)

Negative. I see a lot of people do this. It makes the worst coffee on the planet. I carry a sawn-off tree limb (taken from a tree growing next to the Carter House) and use the flat sawn side to grind the beans. With a little vigor a good grind can be had in ten minutes. About as long as the water takes to boil (you NEVER put the coffee into the water until it is boiling). Boil 7-10 minutes. My pard and I decant into the other's cup and share so you don't spot-weld your lips to the cup.

[James Brenner]

Re: How to prepare coffee

This thread is a bit dated, but I came across this account in the 3 October 1861 issue of the Cincinnati Daily Gazette. The author (A.C. Swartzweldar) was the surgeon of the 18th Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, 3 months.

"Coffee is furnished the soldier in the crude state - that is, just from the sack. The first thing he has to do, therefore, is to "toast" it. This is done in a camp kettle; and I was informed by privates whose veracity was beyond dispute, that this radically important process is frequently completed in ten to fifteen minutes. Now every person that can "get up" a cup of coffee knows that it cannot be properly toasted in less than an hour, and that a still longer time improves it. But to complete the process in ten to fifteen minutes must necessarily burn it, and instead of "toasted" coffee, the soldier has charcoal. The next step is to reduce this burnt coffee to powder or, in a more familiar phrase, "grind" it. How, and with what do you suppose, the soldier does it? ... His sole means are the same identical camp kettle and his musket - the butt end of which is plain, straight, and smooth. ... The soldier puts his burnt coffee in the kettle, and seizing his musket by the barrel, uses it as a "stamper". ... You can imagine what sort of "ground" coffee the soldier will have; especially when the fact is added that he generally hurries through the operation. More properly it should be called "cracked" coffee. Not a few of the grains are halved, more quartered, and the rest of diverse sizes, of coarse comminution. In such a state, neither boiling water or just boiling, can extract half its strength."

Swartzweldar goes on to recommend that the government issue roasted and ground coffee because - he was convinced - that a proper cup of coffee "is a better beverage for the soldier than all the rye, bourbon, brandy, or even S.N. Pike's Army cordial".

[Jeremy Bevard]

Re: How to prepare coffee

I link to a video showing how coffee should be made by the book according to one expert at least.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T22KXgp0VNo